Interprocessor memory status communication

ABSTRACT

In a transactional memory environment including a first processor and one or more additional processors, a computer-implemented method includes, by the first processor, initializing a time record, listening for zero or more probes from the one more additional processors, responding to each probe of the zero or more probes, and logging each probe of the zero or more probes to yield a probe log. The computer-implemented method further includes, by the first processor, receiving a probe report directive and, responsive to the probe report directive, generating a probe report indication based on the probe log. The probe report indication denotes whether, since the time record, the first processor has received any of the zero or more probes. The computer-implemented method further includes ending the time record. A corresponding computer program product and computer system are also disclosed.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates generally to interprocessor communication in amultiprocessor computing environment with transactional memory, and morespecifically to communicating memory usage status between processors insuch an environment.

The number of central processing unit (CPU) cores on a chip and thenumber of CPU cores connected to a shared memory continues to growsignificantly to support growing workload capacity demand. Theincreasing number of CPUs cooperating to process the same workloads putsa significant burden on software scalability; for example, shared queuesor data-structures protected by traditional semaphores become hot spotsand lead to sub-linear n-way scaling curves. Traditionally this has beencountered by implementing finer-grained locking in software, and withlower latency/higher bandwidth interconnects in hardware. Implementingfine-grained locking to improve software scalability can be verycomplicated and error-prone, and at today's CPU frequencies, thelatencies of hardware interconnects are limited by the physicaldimension of the chips and systems, and by the speed of light.

Implementations of hardware Transactional Memory (TM) have beenintroduced, wherein a group of instructions, called a transaction,operate atomically and in isolation (sometimes called “serializability”)on a data structure in memory. The transaction executes optimisticallywithout obtaining a lock, but may need to abort and retry thetransaction execution if an operation, of the executing transaction, ona memory location conflicts with another operation on the same memorylocation. Previously, software transactional memory implementations havebeen proposed to support software Transactional Memory (TM). However,hardware TM can provide improved performance aspects and ease of useover software TM.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,250,331, titled “Operating system virtual memorymanagement for hardware transactional memory”, issued Aug. 21, 2012,teaches:

-   -   Operating system virtual memory management for hardware        transactional memory. A method may be performed in a computing        environment where an application running on a first hardware        thread has been in a hardware transaction, with transactional        memory hardware state in cache entries correlated by memory        hardware when data is read from or written to data cache        entries. The data cache entries are correlated to physical        addresses in a first physical page mapped from a first virtual        page in a virtual memory page table. The method includes an        operating system deciding to unmap the first virtual page. As a        result, the operating system removes the mapping of the first        virtual page to the first physical page from the virtual memory        page table. As a result, the operating system performs an action        to discard transactional memory hardware state for at least the        first physical page. Embodiments may further suspend hardware        transactions in kernel mode. Embodiments may further perform        soft page fault handling without aborting a hardware        transaction, resuming the hardware transaction upon return to        user mode, and even successfully committing the hardware        transaction.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2012/0005530, titled “Systemand Method for Communication Between Concurrent Transactions UsingTransaction Communicator Objects”, issued Jan. 5, 2012, teaches:

-   -   Transactional memory implementations may be extended to include        special transaction communicator objects through which        concurrent transactions can communicate. Changes by a first        transaction to a communicator may be visible to concurrent        transactions before the first transaction commits. Although        isolation of transactions may be compromised by such        communication, the effects of this compromise may be limited by        tracking dependencies among transactions, and preventing any        transaction from committing unless every transaction whose        changes it has observed also commits. For example, mutually        dependent or cyclically dependent transactions may commit or        abort together. Transactions that do not communicate with each        other may remain isolated. The system may provide a        communicator-isolating transaction that ensures isolation even        for accesses to communicators, which may be implemented using        nesting transactions. True (e.g., read-after-write)        dependencies, ordering (e.g., write-after-write) dependencies,        and/or anti-dependencies (e.g., write-after-read dependencies)        may be tracked, and a resulting dependency graph may be perused        by the commit protocol.

SUMMARY

In a transactional memory environment including a first processor andone or more additional processors, a computer-implemented methodincludes identifying a memory location and sending a probe request fromthe first processor to the additional processors. The probe requestincludes the memory location. The computer implemented method furtherincludes generating, by each additional processor, an indicationincluding whether the memory location is in use for a transaction by theadditional processor. The computer-implemented method further includessending the indication from each additional processor to the firstprocessor and proceeding, by the first processor, based on theindication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B depict an example multicore Transactional Memoryenvironment, in accordance with at least one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 depicts example components of an example CPU, in accordance withat least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a data flow diagram for a TPROBE program in accordance withat least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3B is a data flow diagram for a TSPROBE program, in accordance withat least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a data flow diagram for an XI Probe program in accordance withat least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5A is a data flow diagram for a TQUERY program directed to allprocessors in the multiprocessor environment, in accordance with atleast one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5B is a data flow diagram for a TQUERY program directed to allprocessors sharing a common logical partition with the queryingprocessor, in accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a data flow diagram for a TQUERY program in an environmentsupporting a transaction category scheme, in accordance with at leastone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram for a TPROBE program, in accordance withat least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart diagram for a TSPROBE program, in accordance withat least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart diagram for a TSPROBE program in the context of atransaction, in accordance with at least one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart diagram for a TSPROBE program with respect to aspecified memory location, in accordance with at least one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart diagram for an XI Probe program configured forimplementing a TPROBE program, in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart diagram for an XI Probe program configured forimplementing a TSPROBE program, in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart diagram for a TQUERY program, in accordance withat least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 14A presents exemplary pseudocode that calls a TPROBE program, inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 14B presents exemplary pseudocode that calls a TSPROBE program, inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 14C presents pseudocode that calls a TQUERY program, in accordancewith at least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 15 is a table that compares the transaction abort behavior of an XIProbe program configured for implementing a TPROBE program with that ofother cross-interrogate transactions.

FIG. 16A is a table of exemplary status codes for a TPROBE program, inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 16B is a table of exemplary status codes for a TSPROBE program inthe context of a transaction, in accordance with at least one embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 16C is a table of exemplary status codes for an XI Probe programthat implements a TPROBE program, in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing apparatus suitablefor performing the disclosed TPROBE, TSPROBE, TQUERY, and XI Probeprograms, in accordance with at least one embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Historically, a computer system or processor had only a single processor(aka processing unit or central processing unit). The processor includedan instruction processing unit (IPU), a branch unit, a memory controlunit and the like. Such processors were capable of executing a singlethread of a program at a time. Operating systems were developed thatcould time-share a processor by dispatching a program to be executed onthe processor for a period of time, and then dispatching another programto be executed on the processor for another period of time. Astechnology evolved, memory subsystem caches were often added to theprocessor as well as complex dynamic address translation includingtranslation lookaside buffers (TLBs). The IPU itself was often referredto as a processor. As technology continued to evolve, an entireprocessor could be packaged on a single semiconductor chip or die, sucha processor was referred to as a microprocessor. Then processors weredeveloped that incorporated multiple IPUs, such processors were oftenreferred to as multi-processors. Each such processor of amulti-processor computer system (processor) may include individual orshared caches, memory interfaces, system bus, address translationmechanism and the like. Virtual machine and instruction set architecture(ISA) emulators added a layer of software to a processor, that providedthe virtual machine with multiple “virtual processors” (aka processors)by time-slice usage of a single IPU in a single hardware processor. Astechnology further evolved, multi-threaded processors were developed,enabling a single hardware processor having a single multi-thread IPU toprovide a capability of simultaneously executing threads of differentprograms, thus each thread of a multi-threaded processor appeared to theoperating system as a processor. As technology further evolved, it waspossible to put multiple processors (each having an IPU) on a singlesemiconductor chip or die. These processors were referred to processorcores or just cores. Thus the terms such as processor, centralprocessing unit, processing unit, microprocessor, core, processor core,processor thread, and thread, for example, are often usedinterchangeably. Aspects of embodiments herein may be practiced by anyor all processors including those shown supra, without departing fromthe teachings herein. Wherein the term “thread” or “processor thread” isused herein, it is expected that particular advantage of the embodimentmay be had in a processor thread implementation.

Transaction Execution in Intel® Based Embodiments

In “Intel® Architecture Instruction Set Extensions ProgrammingReference” 319433-012A, February 2012, incorporated herein by referencein its entirety, Chapter 8 teaches, in part, that multithreadedapplications may take advantage of increasing numbers of CPU cores toachieve higher performance. However, the writing of multi-threadedapplications requires programmers to understand and take into accountdata sharing among the multiple threads. Access to shared data typicallyrequires synchronization mechanisms. These synchronization mechanismsare used to ensure that multiple threads update shared data byserializing operations that are applied to the shared data, oftenthrough the use of a critical section that is protected by a lock. Sinceserialization limits concurrency, programmers try to limit the overheaddue to synchronization.

Intel® Transactional Synchronization Extensions (Intel® TSX) allow aprocessor to dynamically determine whether threads need to be serializedthrough lock-protected critical sections, and to perform thatserialization only when required. This allows the processor to exposeand exploit concurrency that is hidden in an application because ofdynamically unnecessary synchronization.

With Intel TSX, programmer-specified code regions (also referred to as“transactional regions” or just “transactions”) are executedtransactionally. If the transactional execution completes successfully,then all memory operations performed within the transactional regionwill appear to have occurred instantaneously when viewed from otherprocessors. A processor makes the memory operations of the executedtransaction, performed within the transactional region, visible to otherprocessors only when a successful commit occurs, i.e., when thetransaction successfully completes execution. This process is oftenreferred to as an atomic commit.

Intel TSX provides two software interfaces to specify regions of codefor transactional execution. Hardware Lock Elision (HLE) is a legacycompatible instruction set extension (comprising the XACQUIRE andXRELEASE prefixes) to specify transactional regions. RestrictedTransactional Memory (RTM) is a new instruction set interface(comprising the XBEGIN, XEND, and XABORT instructions) for programmersto define transactional regions in a more flexible manner than thatpossible with HLE. HLE is for programmers who prefer the backwardcompatibility of the conventional mutual exclusion programming model andwould like to run HLE-enabled software on legacy hardware but would alsolike to take advantage of the new lock elision capabilities on hardwarewith HLE support. RTM is for programmers who prefer a flexible interfaceto the transactional execution hardware. In addition, Intel TSX alsoprovides an XTEST instruction. This instruction allows software to querywhether the logical processor is transactionally executing in atransactional region identified by either HLE or RTM.

Since a successful transactional execution ensures an atomic commit, theprocessor executes the code region optimistically without explicitsynchronization. If synchronization was unnecessary for that specificexecution, execution can commit without any cross-thread serialization.If the processor cannot commit atomically, then the optimistic executionfails. When this happens, the processor will roll back the execution, aprocess referred to as a transactional abort. On a transactional abort,the processor will discard all updates performed in the memory regionused by the transaction, restore architectural state to appear as if theoptimistic execution never occurred, and resume executionnon-transactionally.

A processor can perform a transactional abort for numerous reasons. Aprimary reason to abort a transaction is due to conflicting memoryaccesses between the transactionally executing logical processor andanother logical processor. Such conflicting memory accesses may preventa successful transactional execution. Memory addresses read from withina transactional region constitute the read-set of the transactionalregion and addresses written to within the transactional regionconstitute the write-set of the transactional region. Intel TSXmaintains the read- and write-sets at the granularity of a cache line. Aconflicting memory access occurs if another logical processor eitherreads a location that is part of the transactional region's write-set orwrites a location that is a part of either the read- or write-set of thetransactional region. A conflicting access typically means thatserialization is required for this code region. Since Intel TSX detectsdata conflicts at the granularity of a cache line, unrelated datalocations placed in the same cache line will be detected as conflictsthat result in transactional aborts. Transactional aborts may also occurdue to limited transactional resources. For example, the amount of dataaccessed in the region may exceed an implementation-specific capacity.Additionally, some instructions and system events may causetransactional aborts. Frequent transactional aborts result in wastedcycles and increased inefficiency.

Hardware Lock Elision

Hardware Lock Elision (HLE) provides a legacy compatible instruction setinterface for programmers to use transactional execution. HLE providestwo new instruction prefix hints: XACQUIRE and XRELEASE.

With HLE, a programmer adds the XACQUIRE prefix to the front of theinstruction that is used to acquire the lock that is protecting thecritical section. The processor treats the prefix as a hint to elide thewrite associated with the lock acquire operation. Even though the lockacquire has an associated write operation to the lock, the processordoes not add the address of the lock to the transactional region'swrite-set nor does it issue any write requests to the lock. Instead, theaddress of the lock is added to the read-set. The logical processorenters transactional execution. If the lock was available before theXACQUIRE prefixed instruction, then all other processors will continueto see the lock as available afterwards. Since the transactionallyexecuting logical processor neither added the address of the lock to itswrite-set nor performed externally visible write operations to the lock,other logical processors can read the lock without causing a dataconflict. This allows other logical processors to also enter andconcurrently execute the critical section protected by the lock. Theprocessor automatically detects any data conflicts that occur during thetransactional execution and will perform a transactional abort ifnecessary.

Even though the eliding processor did not perform any external writeoperations to the lock, the hardware ensures program order of operationson the lock. If the eliding processor itself reads the value of the lockin the critical section, it will appear as if the processor had acquiredthe lock, i.e. the read will return the non-elided value. This behaviorallows an HLE execution to be functionally equivalent to an executionwithout the HLE prefixes.

An XRELEASE prefix can be added in front of an instruction that is usedto release the lock protecting a critical section. Releasing the lockinvolves a write to the lock. If the instruction is to restore the valueof the lock to the value the lock had prior to the XACQUIRE prefixedlock acquire operation on the same lock, then the processor elides theexternal write request associated with the release of the lock and doesnot add the address of the lock to the write-set. The processor thenattempts to commit the transactional execution.

With HLE, if multiple threads execute critical sections protected by thesame lock but they do not perform any conflicting operations on eachother's data, then the threads can execute concurrently and withoutserialization. Even though the software uses lock acquisition operationson a common lock, the hardware recognizes this, elides the lock, andexecutes the critical sections on the two threads without requiring anycommunication through the lock—if such communication was dynamicallyunnecessary.

If the processor is unable to execute the region transactionally, thenthe processor will execute the region non-transactionally and withoutelision. HLE enabled software has the same forward progress guaranteesas the underlying non-HLE lock-based execution. For successful HLEexecution, the lock and the critical section code must follow certainguidelines. These guidelines only affect performance; and failure tofollow these guidelines will not result in a functional failure.Hardware without HLE support will ignore the XACQUIRE and XRELEASEprefix hints and will not perform any elision since these prefixescorrespond to the REPNE/REPE IA-32 prefixes which are ignored on theinstructions where XACQUIRE and XRELEASE are valid. Importantly, HLE iscompatible with the existing lock-based programming model. Improper useof hints will not cause functional bugs though it may expose latent bugsalready in the code.

Restricted Transactional Memory (RTM) provides a flexible softwareinterface for transactional execution. RTM provides three newinstructions—XBEGIN, XEND, and XABORT—for programmers to start, commit,and abort a transactional execution.

The programmer uses the XBEGIN instruction to specify the start of atransactional code region and the XEND instruction to specify the end ofthe transactional code region. If the RTM region could not besuccessfully executed transactionally, then the XBEGIN instruction takesan operand that provides a relative offset to the fallback instructionaddress.

A processor may abort RTM transactional execution for many reasons. Inmany instances, the hardware automatically detects transactional abortconditions and restarts execution from the fallback instruction addresswith the architectural state corresponding to that present at the startof the XBEGIN instruction and the EAX register updated to describe theabort status.

The XABORT instruction allows programmers to abort the execution of anRTM region explicitly. The XABORT instruction takes an 8-bit immediateargument that is loaded into the EAX register and will thus be availableto software following an RTM abort. RTM instructions do not have anydata memory location associated with them. While the hardware providesno guarantees as to whether an RTM region will ever successfully committransactionally, most transactions that follow the recommendedguidelines are expected to successfully commit transactionally. However,programmers must always provide an alternative code sequence in thefallback path to guarantee forward progress. This may be as simple asacquiring a lock and executing the specified code regionnon-transactionally. Further, a transaction that always aborts on agiven implementation may complete transactionally on a futureimplementation. Therefore, programmers must ensure the code paths forthe transactional region and the alternative code sequence arefunctionally tested.

Detection of HLE Support

A processor supports HLE execution if CPUID.07H.EBX.HLE [bit 4]=1.However, an application can use the HLE prefixes (XACQUIRE and XRELEASE)without checking whether the processor supports HLE. Processors withoutHLE support ignore these prefixes and will execute the code withoutentering transactional execution.

Detection of RTM Support

A processor supports RTM execution if CPUID.07H.EBX.RTM [bit 11]=1. Anapplication must check if the processor supports RTM before it uses theRTM instructions (XBEGIN, XEND, XABORT). These instructions willgenerate a #UD exception when used on a processor that does not supportRTM.

Detection of XTEST Instruction

A processor supports the XTEST instruction if it supports either HLE orRTM. An application must check either of these feature flags beforeusing the XTEST instruction. This instruction will generate a #UDexception when used on a processor that does not support either HLE orRTM.

Querying Transactional Execution Status

The XTEST instruction can be used to determine the transactional statusof a transactional region specified by HLE or RTM. Note, while the HLEprefixes are ignored on processors that do not support HLE, the XTESTinstruction will generate a #UD exception when used on processors thatdo not support either HLE or RTM.

Requirements for HLE Locks

For HLE execution to successfully commit transactionally, the lock mustsatisfy certain properties and access to the lock must follow certainguidelines.

An XRELEASE prefixed instruction must restore the value of the elidedlock to the value it had before the lock acquisition. This allowshardware to safely elide locks by not adding them to the write-set. Thedata size and data address of the lock release (XRELEASE prefixed)instruction must match that of the lock acquire (XACQUIRE prefixed) andthe lock must not cross a cache line boundary.

Software should not write to the elided lock inside a transactional HLEregion with any instruction other than an XRELEASE prefixed instruction,otherwise such a write may cause a transactional abort. In addition,recursive locks (where a thread acquires the same lock multiple timeswithout first releasing the lock) may also cause a transactional abort.Note that software can observe the result of the elided lock acquireinside the critical section. Such a read operation will return the valueof the write to the lock.

The processor automatically detects violations to these guidelines, andsafely transitions to a non-transactional execution without elision.Since Intel TSX detects conflicts at the granularity of a cache line,writes to data collocated on the same cache line as the elided lock maybe detected as data conflicts by other logical processors eliding thesame lock.

Transactional Nesting

Both HLE and RTM support nested transactional regions. However, atransactional abort restores state to the operation that startedtransactional execution: either the outermost XACQUIRE prefixed HLEeligible instruction or the outermost XBEGIN instruction. The processortreats all nested transactions as one transaction.

HLE Nesting and Elision

Programmers can nest HLE regions up to an implementation specific depthof MAX_HLE_NEST_COUNT. Each logical processor tracks the nesting countinternally but this count is not available to software. An XACQUIREprefixed HLE-eligible instruction increments the nesting count, and anXRELEASE prefixed HLE-eligible instruction decrements it. The logicalprocessor enters transactional execution when the nesting count goesfrom zero to one. The logical processor attempts to commit only when thenesting count becomes zero. A transactional abort may occur if thenesting count exceeds MAX_HLE_NEST_COUNT.

In addition to supporting nested HLE regions, the processor can alsoelide multiple nested locks. The processor tracks a lock for elisionbeginning with the XACQUIRE prefixed HLE eligible instruction for thatlock and ending with the XRELEASE prefixed HLE eligible instruction forthat same lock. The processor can, at any one time, track up to aMAX_HLE_ELIDED_LOCKS number of locks. For example, if the implementationsupports a MAX_HLE_ELIDED_LOCKS value of two and if the programmer neststhree HLE identified critical sections (by performing XACQUIRE prefixedHLE eligible instructions on three distinct locks without performing anintervening XRELEASE prefixed HLE eligible instruction on any one of thelocks), then the first two locks will be elided, but the third won't beelided (but will be added to the transaction's writeset). However, theexecution will still continue transactionally. Once an XRELEASE for oneof the two elided locks is encountered, a subsequent lock acquiredthrough the XACQUIRE prefixed HLE eligible instruction will be elided.

The processor attempts to commit the HLE execution when all elidedXACQUIRE and XRELEASE pairs have been matched, the nesting count goes tozero, and the locks have satisfied requirements. If execution cannotcommit atomically, then execution transitions to a non-transactionalexecution without elision as if the first instruction did not have anXACQUIRE prefix.

RTM Nesting

Programmers can nest RTM regions up to an implementation specificMAX_RTM_NEST_COUNT. The logical processor tracks the nesting countinternally but this count is not available to software. An XBEGINinstruction increments the nesting count, and an XEND instructiondecrements the nesting count. The logical processor attempts to commitonly if the nesting count becomes zero. A transactional abort occurs ifthe nesting count exceeds MAX_RTM_NEST_COUNT.

Nesting HLE and RTM

HLE and RTM provide two alternative software interfaces to a commontransactional execution capability. Transactional processing behavior isimplementation specific when HLE and RTM are nested together, e.g., HLEis inside RTM or RTM is inside HLE. However, in all cases, theimplementation will maintain HLE and RTM semantics. An implementationmay choose to ignore HLE hints when used inside RTM regions, and maycause a transactional abort when RTM instructions are used inside HLEregions. In the latter case, the transition from transactional tonon-transactional execution occurs seamlessly since the processor willre-execute the HLE region without actually doing elision, and thenexecute the RTM instructions. Abort Status Definition

RTM uses the EAX register to communicate abort status to software.Following an RTM abort the EAX register has the following definition.

TABLE 1 RTM Abort Status Definition EAX Register Bit Position Meaning 0Set if abort caused by XABORT instruction 1 If set, the transaction maysucceed on retry, this bit is always clear if bit 0 is set 2 Set ifanother logical processor conflicted with a memory address that was partof the transaction that aborted 3 Set if an internal buffer overflowed 4Set if a debug breakpoint was hit 5 Set if an abort occurred duringexecution of a nested transaction 23:6 Reserved 31-24 XABORT argument(only valid if bit 0 set, otherwise reserved)

The EAX abort status for RTM only provides causes for aborts. It doesnot by itself encode whether an abort or commit occurred for the RTMregion. The value of EAX can be 0 following an RTM abort. For example, aCPUID instruction when used inside an RTM region causes a transactionalabort and may not satisfy the requirements for setting any of the EAXbits. This may result in an EAX value of 0.

RTM Memory Ordering

A successful RTM commit causes all memory operations in the RTM regionto appear to execute atomically. A successfully committed RTM regionconsisting of an XBEGIN followed by an XEND, even with no memoryoperations in the RTM region, has the same ordering semantics as a LOCKprefixed instruction.

The XBEGIN instruction does not have fencing semantics. However, if anRTM execution aborts, then all memory updates from within the RTM regionare discarded and are not made visible to any other logical processor.

RTM-Enabled Debugger Support

By default, any debug exception inside an RTM region will cause atransactional abort and will redirect control flow to the fallbackinstruction address with architectural state recovered and bit 4 in EAXset. However, to allow software debuggers to intercept execution ondebug exceptions, the RTM architecture provides additional capability.

If bit 11 of DR7 and bit 15 of the IA32_DEBUGCTL_MSR are both 1, any RTMabort due to a debug exception (#DB) or breakpoint exception (#BP)causes execution to roll back and restart from the XBEGIN instructioninstead of the fallback address. In this scenario, the EAX register willalso be restored back to the point of the XBEGIN instruction.

Programming Considerations

Typical programmer-identified regions are expected to transactionallyexecute and commit successfully. However, Intel TSX does not provide anysuch guarantee. A transactional execution may abort for many reasons. Totake full advantage of the transactional capabilities, programmersshould follow certain guidelines to increase the probability of theirtransactional execution committing successfully.

This section discusses various events that may cause transactionalaborts. The architecture ensures that updates performed within atransaction that subsequently aborts execution will never becomevisible. Only committed transactional executions initiate an update tothe architectural state. Transactional aborts never cause functionalfailures and only affect performance.

Instruction Based Considerations

Programmers can use any instruction safely inside a transaction (HLE orRTM) and can use transactions at any privilege level. However, someinstructions will always abort the transactional execution and causeexecution to seamlessly and safely transition to a non-transactionalpath.

Intel TSX allows for most common instructions to be used insidetransactions without causing aborts. The following operations inside atransaction do not typically cause an abort:

-   -   Operations on the instruction pointer register, general purpose        registers (GPRs) and the status flags (CF, OF, SF, PF, AF, and        ZF); and    -   Operations on XMM and YMM registers and the MXCSR register.

However, programmers must be careful when intermixing SSE and AVXoperations inside a transactional region. Intermixing SSE instructionsaccessing XMM registers and AVX instructions accessing YMM registers maycause transactions to abort. Programmers may use REP/REPNE prefixedstring operations inside transactions. However, long strings may causeaborts. Further, the use of CLD and STD instructions may cause aborts ifthey change the value of the DF flag. However, if DF is 1, the STDinstruction will not cause an abort. Similarly, if DF is 0, then the CLDinstruction will not cause an abort.

Instructions not enumerated here as causing abort when used inside atransaction will typically not cause a transaction to abort (examplesinclude but are not limited to MFENCE, LFENCE, SFENCE, RDTSC, RDTSCP,etc.).

The following instructions will abort transactional execution on anyimplementation:

-   -   XABORT    -   CPUID    -   PAUSE

In addition, in some implementations, the following instructions mayalways cause transactional aborts. These instructions are not expectedto be commonly used inside typical transactional regions. However,programmers must not rely on these instructions to force a transactionalabort, since whether they cause transactional aborts is implementationdependent.

-   -   Operations on X87 and MMX architecture state. This includes all        MMX and X87 instructions, including the FXRSTOR and FXSAVE        instructions.    -   Update to non-status portion of EFLAGS: CLI, STI, POPFD, POPFQ,        and CLTS.    -   Instructions that update segment registers, debug registers        and/or control registers: MOV to DS/ES/FS/GS/SS, POP        DS/ES/FS/GS/SS, LDS, LES, LFS, LGS, LSS, SWAPGS, WRFSBASE,        WRGSBASE, LGDT, SGDT, LIDT, SIDT, LLDT, SLDT, LTR, STR, Far        CALL, Far JMP, Far RET, IRET, MOV to DRx, MOV to        CR0/CR2/CR3/CR4/CR8 and LMSW.    -   Ring transitions: SYSENTER, SYSCALL, SYSEXIT, and SYSRET.    -   TLB and Cacheability control: CLFLUSH, INVD, WBINVD, INVLPG,        INVPCID, and memory instructions with a non-temporal hint        (MOVNTDQA, MOVNTDQ, MOVNTI, MOVNTPD, MOVNTPS, and MOVNTQ).    -   Processor state save: XSAVE, XSAVEOPT, and XRSTOR.    -   Interrupts: INTn, INTO.    -   IO: IN, INS, REP INS, OUT, OUTS, REP OUTS and their variants.    -   VMX: VMPTRLD, VMPTRST, VMCLEAR, VMREAD, VMWRITE, VMCALL,        VMLAUNCH, VMRESUME, VMXOFF, VMXON, INVEPT, and INVVPID.    -   SMX: GETSEC.    -   UD2, RSM, RDMSR, WRMSR, HLT, MONITOR, MWAIT, XSETBV, VZEROUPPER,        MASKMOVQ, and V/MASKMOVDQU.        Runtime Considerations

In addition to the instruction-based considerations, runtime events maycause transactional execution to abort. These may be due to data accesspatterns or micro-architectural implementation features. The followinglist is not a comprehensive discussion of all abort causes.

Any fault or trap in a transaction that must be exposed to software willbe suppressed. Transactional execution will abort and execution willtransition to a non-transactional execution, as if the fault or trap hadnever occurred. If an exception is not masked, then that un-maskedexception will result in a transactional abort and the state will appearas if the exception had never occurred.

Synchronous exception events (#DE, #OF, #NP, #SS, #GP, #BR, #UD, #AC,#XF, #PF, #NM, #TS, #MF, #DB, #BP/INT3) that occur during transactionalexecution may cause an execution not to commit transactionally, andrequire a non-transactional execution. These events are suppressed as ifthey had never occurred. With HLE, since the non-transactional code pathis identical to the transactional code path, these events will typicallyre-appear when the instruction that caused the exception is re-executednon-transactionally, causing the associated synchronous events to bedelivered appropriately in the non-transactional execution. Asynchronousevents (NMI, SMI, INTR, IPI, PMI, etc.) occurring during transactionalexecution may cause the transactional execution to abort and transitionto a non-transactional execution. The asynchronous events will be pendedand handled after the transactional abort is processed.

Transactions only support write-back cacheable memory type operations. Atransaction may always abort if the transaction includes operations onany other memory type. This includes instruction fetches to UC memorytype.

Memory accesses within a transactional region may require the processorto set the Accessed and Dirty flags of the referenced page table entry.The behavior of how the processor handles this is implementationspecific. Some implementations may allow the updates to these flags tobecome externally visible even if the transactional region subsequentlyaborts. Some Intel TSX implementations may choose to abort thetransactional execution if these flags need to be updated. Further, aprocessor's page-table walk may generate accesses to its owntransactionally written but uncommitted state. Some Intel TSXimplementations may choose to abort the execution of a transactionalregion in such situations. Regardless, the architecture ensures that, ifthe transactional region aborts, then the transactionally written statewill not be made architecturally visible through the behavior ofstructures such as TLBs.

Executing self-modifying code transactionally may also causetransactional aborts. Programmers must continue to follow the Intelrecommended guidelines for writing self-modifying and cross-modifyingcode even when employing HLE and RTM. While an implementation of RTM andHLE will typically provide sufficient resources for executing commontransactional regions, implementation constraints and excessive sizesfor transactional regions may cause a transactional execution to abortand transition to a non-transactional execution. The architectureprovides no guarantee of the amount of resources available to dotransactional execution and does not guarantee that a transactionalexecution will ever succeed.

Conflicting requests to a cache line accessed within a transactionalregion may prevent the transaction from executing successfully. Forexample, if logical processor P0 reads line A in a transactional regionand another logical processor P1 writes line A (either inside or outsidea transactional region) then logical processor P0 may abort if logicalprocessor P1's write interferes with processor P0's ability to executetransactionally.

Similarly, if P0 writes line A in a transactional region and P1 reads orwrites line A (either inside or outside a transactional region), then P0may abort if P1's access to line A interferes with P0's ability toexecute transactionally. In addition, other coherence traffic may attimes appear as conflicting requests and may cause aborts. While thesefalse conflicts may happen, they are expected to be uncommon. Theconflict resolution policy to determine whether P0 or P1 aborts in theabove scenarios is implementation specific.

Generic Transaction Execution Embodiments:

According to “ARCHITECTURES FOR TRANSACTIONAL MEMORY”, a dissertationsubmitted to the Department of Computer Science and the Committee onGraduate Studies of Stanford University in partial fulfillment of therequirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, by Austen McDonald,June 2009, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety,fundamentally, there are three mechanisms needed to implement an atomicand isolated transactional region: versioning, conflict detection, andcontention management.

To make a transactional code region appear atomic, all the modificationsperformed by that transactional code region must be stored and keptisolated from other transactions until commit time. The system does thisby implementing a versioning policy. Two versioning paradigms exist:eager and lazy. An eager versioning system stores newly generatedtransactional values in place and stores previous memory values on theside, in what is called an undo-log. A lazy versioning system stores newvalues temporarily in what is called a write buffer, copying them tomemory only on commit. In either system, the cache is used to optimizestorage of new versions.

To ensure that transactions appear to be performed atomically, conflictsmust be detected and resolved. The two systems, i.e., the eager and lazyversioning systems, detect conflicts by implementing a conflictdetection policy, either optimistic or pessimistic. An optimistic systemexecutes transactions in parallel, checking for conflicts only when atransaction commits. A pessimistic system checks for conflicts at eachload and store. Similar to versioning, conflict detection also uses thecache, marking each line as either part of the read-set, part of thewrite-set, or both. The two systems resolve conflicts by implementing acontention management policy. Many contention management policies exist,some are more appropriate for optimistic conflict detection and some aremore appropriate for pessimistic. Described below are some examplepolicies.

Since each transactional memory (TM) system needs both versioningdetection and conflict detection, these options give rise to fourdistinct TM designs: Eager-Pessimistic (EP), Eager-Optimistic (EO),Lazy-Pessimistic (LP), and Lazy-Optimistic (LO). Table 2 brieflydescribes all four distinct TM designs.

FIGS. 1A and 1B depict an example of a multicore TM environment. FIG. 1Ashows many TM-enabled CPUs (CPU1 114 a, CPU2 114 b, etc.) on one die100, connected with an interconnect 122, under management of aninterconnect control 120 a, 120 b. Each CPU 114 a, 114 b (also known asa Processor) may have a split cache consisting of an Instruction Cache116 a, 116 b for caching instructions from memory to be executed and aData Cache 118 a, 118 b with TM support for caching data (operands) ofmemory locations to be operated on by the CPU 114 a, 114 b (in FIG. 1A,each CPU 114 a, 114 b and its associated caches are referenced as 112 a,112 b). In an implementation, caches of multiple dies 100 areinterconnected to support cache coherency between the caches of themultiple dies 100. In an implementation, a single cache, rather than thesplit cache is employed holding both instructions and data. Inimplementations, the CPU caches are one level of caching in ahierarchical cache structure. For example each die 100 may employ ashared cache 124 to be shared amongst all the CPUs on the die 100. Inanother implementation, each die may have access to a shared cache 124,shared amongst all the processors of all the dies 100.

FIG. 1B shows the details of an example transactional CPU environment112, having a CPU 114, including additions to support TM. Thetransactional CPU (processor) 114 may include hardware for supportingRegister Checkpoints 126 and special TM Registers 128. The transactionalCPU cache may have the MESI bits 130, Tags 140 and Data 142 of aconventional cache but also, for example, R bits 132 showing a line hasbeen read by the CPU 114 while executing a transaction and W bits 138showing a line has been written-to by the CPU 114 while executing atransaction.

A key detail for programmers in any TM system is how non-transactionalaccesses interact with transactions. By design, transactional accessesare screened from each other using the mechanisms above. However, theinteraction between a regular, non-transactional load with a transactioncontaining a new value for that address must still be considered. Inaddition, the interaction between a non-transactional store with atransaction that has read that address must also be explored. These areissues of the database concept isolation.

A TM system is said to implement strong isolation, sometimes calledstrong atomicity, when every non-transactional load and store acts likean atomic transaction. Therefore, non-transactional loads cannot seeuncommitted data and non-transactional stores cause atomicity violationsin any transactions that have read that address. A system where this isnot the case is said to implement weak isolation, sometimes called weakatomicity.

Strong isolation is often more desirable than weak isolation due to therelative ease of conceptualization and implementation of strongisolation. Additionally, if a programmer has forgotten to surround someshared memory references with transactions, causing bugs, then withstrong isolation, the programmer will often detect that oversight usinga simple debug interface because the programmer will see anon-transactional region causing atomicity violations. Also, programswritten in one model may work differently on another model.

Further, strong isolation is often easier to support in hardware TM thanweak isolation. With strong isolation, since the coherence protocolalready manages load and store communication between processors,transactions can detect non-transactional loads and stores and actappropriately. To implement strong isolation in software TransactionalMemory (TM), non-transactional code must be modified to include read-and write-barriers; potentially crippling performance. Although greateffort has been expended to remove many un-needed barriers, suchtechniques are often complex and performance is typically far lower thanthat of HTMs.

TABLE 2 Transactional Memory Design Space VERSIONING Lazy Eager CONFLICTOpti- Storing updates Not practical: waiting DETECTION mistic in a writebuffer; to update memory until detecting conflicts commit time butdetecting at commit time. conflicts at access time guarantees wastedwork and provides no advantage Pessi- Storing updates Updating memory,mistic in a write buffer; keeping old values in detecting conflicts undolog; detecting at access time. conflicts at access time.

Table 2 illustrates the fundamental design space of transactional memory(versioning and conflict detection).

Eager-Pessimistic (EP)

This first TM design described below is known as Eager-Pessimistic. AnEP system stores its write-set “in place” (hence the name “eager”) and,to support rollback, stores the old values of overwritten lines in an“undo log”. Processors use the W 138 and R 132 cache bits to track readand write-sets and detect conflicts when receiving snooped loadrequests. Perhaps the most notable examples of EP systems in knownliterature are LogTM and UTM.

Beginning a transaction in an EP system is much like beginning atransaction in other systems: tm_begin( )takes a register checkpoint,and initializes any status registers. An EP system also requiresinitializing the undo log, the details of which are dependent on the logformat, but often involve initializing a log base pointer to a region ofpre-allocated, thread-private memory, and clearing a log boundsregister.

Versioning: In EP, due to the way eager versioning is designed tofunction, the MESI 130 state transitions (cache line indicatorscorresponding to Modified, Exclusive, Shared, and Invalid code states)are left mostly unchanged. Outside of a transaction, the MESI 130 statetransitions are left completely unchanged. When reading a line inside atransaction, the standard coherence transitions apply (S (Shared)→S, I(Invalid)→S, or I→E (Exclusive)), issuing a load miss as needed, but theR 132 bit is also set. Likewise, writing a line applies the standardtransitions (S→M, E→I, I→M), issuing a miss as needed, but also sets theW 138 (Written) bit. The first time a line is written, the old versionof the entire line is loaded then written to the undo log to preserve itin case the current transaction aborts. The newly written data is thenstored “in-place,” over the old data.

Conflict Detection: Pessimistic conflict detection uses coherencemessages exchanged on misses, or upgrades, to look for conflicts betweentransactions. When a read miss occurs within a transaction, otherprocessors receive a load request; but they ignore the request if theydo not have the needed line. If the other processors have the neededline non-speculatively or have the line R 132 (Read), they downgradethat line to S, and in certain cases issue a cache-to-cache transfer ifthey have the line in MESI's 130 M or E state. However, if the cache hasthe line W 138, then a conflict is detected between the two transactionsand additional action(s) must be taken.

Similarly, when a transaction seeks to upgrade a line from shared tomodified (on a first write), the transaction issues an exclusive loadrequest, which is also used to detect conflicts. If a receiving cachehas the line non-speculatively, then the line is invalidated, and incertain cases a cache-to-cache transfer (M or E states) is issued. But,if the line is R 132 or W 138, a conflict is detected.

Validation: Because conflict detection is performed on every load, atransaction always has exclusive access to its own write-set. Therefore,validation does not require any additional work.

Commit: Since eager versioning stores the new version of data items inplace, the commit process simply clears the W 138 and R 132 bits anddiscards the undo log.

Abort: When a transaction rolls back, the original version of each cacheline in the undo log must be restored, a process called “unrolling” or“applying” the log. This is done during tm_discard( ) and must be atomicwith regard to other transactions. Specifically, the write-set muststill be used to detect conflicts: this transaction has the only correctversion of lines in its undo log, and requesting transactions must waitfor the correct version to be restored from that log. Such a log can beapplied using a hardware state machine or software abort handler.

Eager-Pessimistic has the characteristics of: Commit is simple and sinceit is in-place, very fast. Similarly, validation is a no-op. Pessimisticconflict detection detects conflicts early, thereby reducing the numberof “doomed” transactions. For example, if two transactions are involvedin a Write-After-Read dependency, then that dependency is detectedimmediately in pessimistic conflict detection. However, in optimisticconflict detection such conflicts are not detected until the writercommits.

Eager-Pessimistic also has the characteristics of: As described above,the first time a cache line is written, the old value must be written tothe log, incurring extra cache accesses. Aborts are expensive as theyrequire undoing the log. For each cache line in the log, a load must beissued, perhaps going as far as main memory before continuing to thenext line. Pessimistic conflict detection also prevents certainserializable schedules from existing.

Additionally, because conflicts are handled as they occur, there is apotential for livelock and careful contention management mechanisms mustbe employed to guarantee forward progress.

Lazy Optimistic (LO)

Another popular TM design is Lazy-Optimistic (LO), which stores itswrite-set in a “write buffer” or “redo log” and detects conflicts atcommit time (still using the R 132 and W 138 bits).

Versioning: Just as in the EP system, the MESI protocol of the LO designis enforced outside of the transactions. Once inside a transaction,reading a line incurs the standard MESI transitions but also sets the R132 bit. Likewise, writing a line sets the W 138 bit of the line, buthandling the MESI transitions of the LO design is different from that ofthe EP design. First, with lazy versioning, the new versions of writtendata are stored in the cache hierarchy until commit while othertransactions have access to old versions available in memory or othercaches. To make available the old versions, dirty lines (M lines) mustbe evicted when first written by a transaction. Second, no upgrademisses are needed because of the optimistic conflict detection feature:if a transaction has a line in the S state, it can simply write to itand upgrade that line to an M state without communicating the changeswith other transactions because conflict detection is done at committime.

Conflict Detection and Validation: To validate a transaction and detectconflicts, LO communicates the addresses of speculatively modified linesto other transactions only when it is preparing to commit. Onvalidation, the processor sends one, potentially large, network packetcontaining all the addresses in the write-set. Data is not sent, butleft in the cache of the committer and marked dirty (M). To build thispacket without searching the cache for lines marked W, a simple bitvector is used, called a “store buffer,” with one bit per cache line totrack these speculatively modified lines. Other transactions use thisaddress packet to detect conflicts: if an address is found in the cacheand the R 132 and/or W 138 bits are set, then a conflict is initiated.If the line is found but neither R 132 nor W 138 is set, then the lineis simply invalidated, which is similar to processing an exclusive load.

To support transaction atomicity, these address packets must be handledatomically, i.e., no two address packets may exist at once with the sameaddresses. In an LO system, this can be achieved by simply acquiring aglobal commit token before sending the address packet. However, atwo-phase commit scheme could be employed by first sending out theaddress packet, collecting responses, enforcing an ordering protocol(perhaps oldest transaction first), and committing once all responsesare satisfactory.

Commit: Once validation has occurred, commit needs no special treatment:simply clear W 138 and R 132 bits and the store buffer. Thetransaction's writes are already marked dirty in the cache and othercaches' copies of these lines have been invalidated via the addresspacket. Other processors can then access the committed data through theregular coherence protocol.

Abort: Rollback is equally easy: because the write-set is containedwithin the local caches, these lines can be invalidated, then clear W138 and R 132 bits and the store buffer. The store buffer allows W linesto be found to invalidate without the need to search the cache.

Lazy-Optimistic has the characteristics of: Aborts are very fast,requiring no additional loads or stores and making only local changes.More serializable schedules can exist than found in EP, which allows anLO system to more aggressively speculate that transactions areindependent, which can yield higher performance. Finally, the latedetection of conflicts can increase the likelihood of forward progress.

Lazy-Optimistic also has the characteristics of: Validation takes globalcommunication time proportional to size of write set. Doomedtransactions can waste work since conflicts are detected only at committime.

Lazy-Pessimistic (LP)

Lazy-Pessimistic (LP) represents a third TM design option, sittingsomewhere between EP and LO: storing newly written lines in a writebuffer but detecting conflicts on a per access basis.

Versioning: Versioning is similar but not identical to that of LO:reading a line sets its R bit 132, writing a line sets its W bit 138,and a store buffer is used to track W lines in the cache. Also, dirty(M) lines must be evicted when first written by a transaction, just asin LO. However, since conflict detection is pessimistic, load exclusivesmust be performed when upgrading a transactional line from I, S→M, whichis unlike LO.

Conflict Detection: LP's conflict detection operates the same as EP's:using coherence messages to look for conflicts between transactions.

Validation: Like in EP, pessimistic conflict detection ensures that atany point, a running transaction has no conflicts with any other runningtransaction, so validation is a no-op.

Commit: Commit needs no special treatment: simply clear W 138 and R 132bits and the store buffer, like in LO.

Abort: Rollback is also like that of LO: simply invalidate the write-setusing the store buffer and clear the W and R bits and the store buffer.

Eager-Optimistic (EO)

The LP has the characteristics of: Like LO, aborts are very fast. LikeEP, the use of pessimistic conflict detection reduces the number of“doomed” transactions Like EP, some serializable schedules are notallowed and conflict detection must be performed on each cache miss.

The final combination of versioning and conflict detection isEager-Optimistic (EO). EO may be a less than optimal choice for HTMsystems: since new transactional versions are written in-place, othertransactions have no choice but to notice conflicts as they occur (i.e.,as cache misses occur). But since EO waits until commit time to detectconflicts, those transactions become “zombies,” continuing to execute,wasting resources, yet are “doomed” to abort.

EO has proven to be useful in STMs and is implemented by Bartok-STM andMcRT. A lazy versioning STM needs to check its write buffer on each readto ensure that it is reading the most recent value. Since the writebuffer is not a hardware structure, this is expensive, hence thepreference for write-in-place eager versioning. Additionally, sincechecking for conflicts is also expensive in an STM, optimistic conflictdetection offers the advantage of performing this operation in bulk.

Contention Management

How a transaction rolls back once the system has decided to abort thattransaction has been described above, but, since a conflict involves twotransactions, the topics of which transaction should abort, how thatabort should be initiated, and when should the aborted transaction beretried need to be explored. These are topics that are addressed byContention Management (CM), a key component of transactional memory.Described below are policies regarding how the systems initiate abortsand the various established methods of managing which transactionsshould abort in a conflict.

Contention Management Policies

A Contention Management (CM) Policy is a mechanism that determines whichtransaction involved in a conflict should abort and when the abortedtransaction should be retried. For example, it is often the case thatretrying an aborted transaction immediately does not lead to the bestperformance. Conversely, employing a back-off mechanism, which delaysthe retrying of an aborted transaction, can yield better performance.STMs first grappled with finding the best contention management policiesand many of the policies outlined below were originally developed forSTMs.

CM Policies draw on a number of measures to make decisions, includingages of the transactions, size of read- and write-sets, the number ofprevious aborts, etc. The combinations of measures to make suchdecisions are endless, but certain combinations are described below,roughly in order of increasing complexity.

To establish some nomenclature, first note that in a conflict there aretwo sides: the attacker and the defender. The attacker is thetransaction requesting access to a shared memory location. Inpessimistic conflict detection, the attacker is the transaction issuingthe load or load exclusive. In optimistic, the attacker is thetransaction attempting to validate. The defender in both cases is thetransaction receiving the attacker's request.

An Aggressive CM Policy immediately and always retries either theattacker or the defender. In LO, Aggressive means that the attackeralways wins, and so Aggressive is sometimes called committer wins. Sucha policy was used for the earliest LO systems. In the case of EP,Aggressive can be either defender wins or attacker wins.

Restarting a conflicting transaction that will immediately experienceanother conflict is bound to waste work—namely interconnect bandwidthrefilling cache misses. A Polite CM Policy employs exponential backoff(but linear could also be used) before restarting conflicts. To preventstarvation, a situation where a process does not have resourcesallocated to it by the scheduler, the exponential backoff greatlyincreases the odds of transaction success after some n retries.

Another approach to conflict resolution is to randomly abort theattacker or defender (a policy called Randomized). Such a policy may becombined with a randomized backoff scheme to avoid unneeded contention.

However, making random choices, when selecting a transaction to abort,can result in aborting transactions that have completed “a lot of work”,which can waste resources. To avoid such waste, the amount of workcompleted on the transaction can be taken into account when determiningwhich transaction to abort. One measure of work could be a transaction'sage. Other methods include Oldest, Bulk TM, Size Matters, Karma, andPolka. Oldest is a simple timestamp method that aborts the youngertransaction in a conflict. Bulk TM uses this scheme. Size Matters islike Oldest but instead of transaction age, the number of read/writtenwords is used as the priority, reverting to Oldest after a fixed numberof aborts. Karma is similar, using the size of the write-set aspriority. Rollback then proceeds after backing off a fixed amount oftime. Aborted transactions keep their priorities after being aborted(hence the name Karma). Polka works like Karma but instead of backingoff a predefined amount of time, it backs off exponentially more eachtime.

Since aborting wastes work, it is logical to argue that stalling anattacker until the defender has finished their transaction would lead tobetter performance. Unfortunately, such a simple scheme easily leads todeadlock.

Deadlock avoidance techniques can be used to solve this problem. Greedyuses two rules to avoid deadlock. The first rule is, if a firsttransaction, T1, has lower priority than a second transaction, T0, or ifT1 is waiting for another transaction, then T1 aborts when conflictingwith T0. The second rule is, if T1 has higher priority than T0 and isnot waiting, then T0 waits until T1 commits, aborts, or starts waiting(in which case the first rule is applied). Greedy provides someguarantees about time bounds for executing a set of transactions. One EPdesign (LogTM) uses a CM policy similar to Greedy to achieve stallingwith conservative deadlock avoidance.

Example MESI coherency rules provide for four possible states in which acache line of a multiprocessor cache system may reside, M, E, S, and I,defined as follows:

Modified (M): The cache line is present only in the current cache, andis dirty; it has been modified from the value in main memory. The cacheis required to write the data back to main memory at some time in thefuture, before permitting any other read of the (no longer valid) mainmemory state. The write-back changes the line to the Exclusive state.

Exclusive (E): The cache line is present only in the current cache, butis clean; it matches main memory. It may be changed to the Shared stateat any time, in response to a read request. Alternatively, it may bechanged to the Modified state when writing to it.

Shared (S): Indicates that this cache line may be stored in other cachesof the machine and is “clean”; it matches the main memory. The line maybe discarded (changed to the Invalid state) at any time.

Invalid (I): Indicates that this cache line is invalid (unused).

TM coherency status indicators (R 132, W 138) may be provided for eachcache line, in addition to, or encoded in the MESI coherency bits. An R132 indicator indicates the current transaction has read from the dataof the cache line, and a W 138 indicator indicates the currenttransaction has written to the data of the cache line.

In another aspect of TM design, a system is designed using transactionalstore buffers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,361 titled “Methods and Apparatus forReordering and Renaming Memory References in a Multiprocessor ComputerSystem,” filed Mar. 31, 2000 and incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety, teaches a method for reordering and renaming memory referencesin a multiprocessor computer system having at least a first and a secondprocessor. The first processor has a first private cache and a firstbuffer, and the second processor has a second private cache and a secondbuffer. The method includes the steps of, for each of a plurality ofgated store requests received by the first processor to store a datum,exclusively acquiring a cache line that contains the datum by the firstprivate cache, and storing the datum in the first buffer. Upon the firstbuffer receiving a load request from the first processor to load aparticular datum, the particular datum is provided to the firstprocessor from among the data stored in the first buffer based on anin-order sequence of load and store operations. Upon the first cachereceiving a load request from the second cache for a given datum, anerror condition is indicated and a current state of at least one of theprocessors is reset to an earlier state when the load request for thegiven datum corresponds to the data stored in the first buffer.

The main implementation components of one such transactional memoryfacility are a transaction-backup register file for holdingpre-transaction GR (general register) content, a cache directory totrack the cache lines accessed during the transaction, a store cache tobuffer stores until the transaction ends, and firmware routines toperform various complex functions. In this section a detailedimplementation is described.

IBM zEnterprise EC12 Enterprise Server Embodiment

The IBM zEnterprise EC12 enterprise server introduces transactionalexecution (TX) in transactional memory, and is described in part in apaper, “Transactional Memory Architecture and Implementation for IBMSystem z” of Proceedings Pages 25-36 presented at MICRO-45, 1-5 Dec.2012, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, available from IEEE ComputerSociety Conference Publishing Services (CPS), which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

Table 3 shows an example transaction. Transactions started with TBEGINare not assured to ever successfully complete with TEND, since they canexperience an aborting condition at every attempted execution, e.g., dueto repeating conflicts with other CPUs. This requires that the programsupport a fallback path to perform the same operationnon-transactionally, e.g., by using traditional locking schemes. Thisputs significant burden on the programming and software verificationteams, especially where the fallback path is not automatically generatedby a reliable compiler.

TABLE 3 Example Transaction Code LHI R0,0 *initialize retry count=0 loopTBEGIN *begin transaction JNZ abort *go to abort code if CC1=0 LT R1,lock *load and test the fallback lock JNZ lckbzy *branch if lock busy .. . perform operation . . . TEND *end transaction . . . . . . . . .lckbzy TABORT *abort if lock busy; this *resumes after TBEGIN abort JOfallback *no retry if CC=3 AHI R0, 1 *increment retry count CIJNL R0,6,fallback *give up after 6 attempts PPA R0, TX *random delay based onretry count . . . potentially wait for lock to become free . . . J loop*jump back to retry fallback OBTAIN lock *using Compare&Swap . . .perform operation . . . RELEASE lock . . . . . . . . .

The requirement of providing a fallback path for aborted TransactionExecution (TX) transactions can be onerous. Many transactions operatingon shared data structures are expected to be short, touch only a fewdistinct memory locations, and use simple instructions only. For thosetransactions, the IBM zEnterprise EC12 introduces the concept ofconstrained transactions; under normal conditions, the CPU 114 assuresthat constrained transactions eventually end successfully, albeitwithout giving a strict limit on the number of necessary retries. Aconstrained transaction starts with a TBEGINC instruction and ends witha regular TEND. Implementing a task as a constrained or non-constrainedtransaction typically results in very comparable performance, butconstrained transactions simplify software development by removing theneed for a fallback path. IBM's Transactional Execution architecture isfurther described in z/Architecture, Principles of Operation, TenthEdition, SA22-7832-09 published September 2012 from IBM, incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

A constrained transaction starts with the TBEGINC instruction. Atransaction initiated with TBEGINC must follow a list of programmingconstraints; otherwise the program takes a non-filterableconstraint-violation interruption. Exemplary constraints may include,but not be limited to: the transaction can execute a maximum of 32instructions, all instruction text must be within 256 consecutive bytesof memory; the transaction contains only forward-pointing relativebranches (i.e., no loops or subroutine calls); the transaction canaccess a maximum of 4 aligned octowords (an octoword is 32 bytes) ofmemory; and restriction of the instruction-set to exclude complexinstructions like decimal or floating-point operations. The constraintsare chosen such that many common operations like doubly linkedlist-insert/delete operations can be performed, including the verypowerful concept of atomic compare-and-swap targeting up to 4 alignedoctowords. At the same time, the constraints were chosen conservativelysuch that future CPU implementations can assure transaction successwithout needing to adjust the constraints, since that would otherwiselead to software incompatibility.

TBEGINC mostly behaves like XBEGIN in TSX or TBEGIN on IBM's zEC12servers, except that the floating-point register (FPR) control and theprogram interruption filtering fields do not exist and the controls areconsidered to be zero. On a transaction abort, the instruction addressis set back directly to the TBEGINC instead of to the instruction after,reflecting the immediate retry and absence of an abort path forconstrained transactions.

Nested transactions are not allowed within constrained transactions, butif a TBEGINC occurs within a non-constrained transaction it is treatedas opening a new non-constrained nesting level just like TBEGIN would.This can occur, e.g., if a non-constrained transaction calls asubroutine that uses a constrained transaction internally.

Since interruption filtering is implicitly off, all exceptions during aconstrained transaction lead to an interruption into the operatingsystem (OS). Eventual successful finishing of the transaction relies onthe capability of the OS to page-in the at most 4 pages touched by anyconstrained transaction. The OS must also ensure time-slices long enoughto allow the transaction to complete.

TABLE 4 Transaction Code Example TBEGINC *begin constrained transaction. . . perform operation . . . TEND *end transaction

Table 4 shows the constrained-transactional implementation of the codein Table 3, assuming that the constrained transactions do not interactwith other locking-based code. No lock testing is shown therefore, butcould be added if constrained transactions and lock-based code weremixed.

When failure occurs repeatedly, software emulation is performed usingmillicode as part of system firmware. Advantageously, constrainedtransactions have desirable properties because of the burden removedfrom programmers.

With reference to FIG. 2, the IBM zEnterprise EC12 processor introducedthe transactional execution facility. The processor can decode 3instructions per clock cycle; simple instructions are dispatched assingle micro-ops, and more complex instructions are cracked intomultiple micro-ops. The micro-ops (Uops 232 b) are written into aunified issue queue 216, from where they can be issued out-of-order. Upto two fixed-point, one floating-point, two load/store, and two branchinstructions can execute every cycle. A Global Completion Table (GCT)232 holds every micro-op and a transaction nesting depth (TND) 232 a.The GCT 232 is written in-order at decode time, tracks the executionstatus of each micro-op 232 b, and completes instructions when allmicro-ops 232 b of the oldest instruction group have successfullyexecuted.

The level 1 (L1) data cache 240 is a 96 KB (kilo-byte) 6-way associativecache with 256 byte cache-lines and 4 cycle use latency, coupled to aprivate 1 MB (mega-byte) 8-way associative 2nd-level (L2) data cache 268with 7 cycles use-latency penalty for L1 240 misses. L1 240 cache is thecache closest to a processor and Ln cache is a cache at the nth level ofcaching. Both L1 240 and L2 268 caches are store-through. Six cores oneach central processor (CP) chip share a 48 MB 3rd-level store-in cache,and six CP chips are connected to an off-chip 384 MB L4 cache 290,packaged together on a glass ceramic multi-chip module (MCM). Up to 4multi-chip modules (MCMs) can be connected to a coherent symmetricmulti-processor (SMP) system with up to 144 cores (not all cores areavailable to run customer workload).

Coherency is managed with a variant of the MESI protocol. Cache-linescan be owned read-only (shared) or exclusive; the L1 240 and L2 268 arestore-through and thus do not contain dirty lines. The L3 272 and L4caches 290 are store-in and track dirty states. Each cache is inclusiveof all its connected lower level caches.

Coherency requests are called “cross interrogates” (XIs) and may be senthierarchically from higher level to lower-level caches, and between theL4s 290. In embodiments implementing the L4s 290, when one core missesthe L1 240 and L2 268 and requests the cache line from its local L3 272,the L3 272 checks whether it owns the line, and if necessary sends an XIto the currently owning L2 268/L1 240 under that L3 272 to ensurecoherency, before it returns the cache line to the requestor. If therequest also misses the L3 272, the L3 272 sends a request to the L4290, which enforces coherency by sending XIs to all necessary L3s underthat L4, and to the neighboring L4s. Then the L4 responds to therequesting L3 which forwards the response to the L2 268/L1 240. Moregenerally, XIs may be transmitted from higher to lower cache levels insystems with more or fewer levels. For example, various embodiments maylack an L4 entirely, and in such embodiments XIs may be communicatedbetween L3s or between the lowest level caches that are implemented onthe system. Even more generally, XIs may be understood as a hardwaremechanism for communicating messages between processors, whether throughthe caches, main memory, or otherwise.

Note that due to the inclusivity rule of the cache hierarchy, sometimescache lines are XI'ed from lower-level caches due to evictions onhigher-level caches caused by associativity overflows from requests toother cache lines. These XIs can be called “LRU XIs”, where LRU standsfor least recently used.

Making reference to yet another type of XI requests, Demote-XIstransition cache-ownership from exclusive into read-only state, andExclusive-XIs transition cache ownership from exclusive into invalidstate. Demote-XIs and Exclusive-XIs need a response back to the XIsender. The target cache can “accept” the XI, or send a “reject”response if it first needs to evict dirty data before accepting the XI.The L1 240/L2 268 caches are store through, but may reject demote-XIsand exclusive XIs if they have stores in their store queues that need tobe sent to L3 before downgrading the exclusive state. A rejected XI willbe repeated by the sender. Read-only-XIs are sent to caches that own theline read-only; no response is needed for such XIs since they cannot berejected. The details of the SMP protocol are similar to those describedfor the IBM z10 by P. Mak, C. Walters, and G. Strait, in “IBM System z10processor cache subsystem microarchitecture”, IBM Journal of Researchand Development, Vol 53:1, 2009, which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

Transactional Instruction Execution

FIG. 2 depicts example components of an example CPU environment 112,including a CPU 114 and caches/components with which it interacts (suchas those depicted in FIGS. 1A and 1B). The instruction decode unit 208(IDU) keeps track of the current transaction nesting depth 212 (TND).When the IDU 208 receives a TBEGIN instruction, the nesting depth 212 isincremented, and conversely decremented on TEND instructions. Thenesting depth 212 is written into the GCT 232 for every dispatchedinstruction. When a TBEGIN or TEND is decoded on a speculative path thatlater gets flushed, the IDU's 208 nesting depth 212 is refreshed fromthe youngest GCT 232 entry that is not flushed. The transactional stateis also written into the issue queue 216 for consumption by theexecution units, mostly by the Load/Store Unit (LSU) 280, which also hasan effective address calculator 236 is included in the LSU 280. TheTBEGIN instruction may specify a transaction diagnostic block (TDB) forrecording status information, should the transaction abort beforereaching a TEND instruction.

Similar to the nesting depth, the IDU 208/GCT 232 collaboratively trackthe access register/floating-point register (AR/FPR) modification masksthrough the transaction nest; the IDU 208 can place an abort requestinto the GCT 232 when an AR/FPR-modifying instruction is decoded and themodification mask blocks that. When the instruction becomesnext-to-complete, completion is blocked and the transaction aborts.Other restricted instructions are handled similarly, including TBEGIN ifdecoded while in a constrained transaction, or exceeding the maximumnesting depth.

An outermost TBEGIN is cracked into multiple micro-ops depending on theGR-Save-Mask; each micro-op 232 b (including, for example uop 0, uop 1,and uop2) will be executed by one of the two fixed point units (FXUs)220 to save a pair of GRs 228 into a special transaction-backup registerfile 224, that is used to later restore the GR 228 content in case of atransaction abort. Also the TBEGIN spawns micro-ops 232 b to perform anaccessibility test for the TDB if one is specified; the address is savedin a special purpose register for later usage in the abort case. At thedecoding of an outermost TBEGIN, the instruction address and theinstruction text of the TBEGIN are also saved in special purposeregisters for a potential abort processing later on.

TEND and NTSTG are single micro-op 232 b instructions; NTSTG(non-transactional store) is handled like a normal store except that itis marked as non-transactional in the issue queue 216 so that the LSU280 can treat it appropriately. TEND is a no-op at execution time, theending of the transaction is performed when TEND completes.

As mentioned, instructions that are within a transaction are marked assuch in the issue queue 216, but otherwise execute mostly unchanged; theLSU 280 performs isolation tracking as described in the next section.

Since decoding is in-order, and since the IDU 208 keeps track of thecurrent transactional state and writes it into the issue queue 216 alongwith every instruction from the transaction, execution of TBEGIN, TEND,and instructions before, within, and after the transaction can beperformed out-of order. It is even possible (though unlikely) that TENDis executed first, then the entire transaction, and lastly the TBEGINexecutes. Program order is restored through the GCT 232 at completiontime. The length of transactions is not limited by the size of the GCT232, since general purpose registers (GRs) 228 can be restored from thebackup register file 224.

During execution, the program event recording (PER) events are filteredbased on the Event Suppression Control, and a PER TEND event is detectedif enabled. Similarly, while in transactional mode, a pseudo-randomgenerator may be causing the random aborts as enabled by the TransactionDiagnostics Control.

Tracking for Transactional Execution

The Load/Store Unit 280 tracks cache lines that were accessed duringtransactional execution, and triggers an abort if an XI from another CPU(or an LRU-XI) conflicts with the footprint. If the conflicting XI is anexclusive or demote XI, the LSU 280 rejects the XI back to the L3 272 inthe hope of finishing the transaction before the L3 272 repeats the XI.This “stiff-arming” is very efficient in highly contended transactions.In order to prevent hangs when two CPUs stiff-arm each other, aXI-reject counter is implemented, which triggers a transaction abortwhen a threshold is met.

The L1 cache directory 240 is traditionally implemented with staticrandom access memories (SRAMs). For the transactional memoryimplementation, the valid bits 244 (64 rows×6 ways) of the directoryhave been moved into normal logic latches, and are supplemented with twomore bits per cache line: the TX-read 248 and TX-dirty 252 bits.

The TX-read 248 bits are reset when a new outermost TBEGIN is decoded(which is interlocked against a prior still pending transaction). TheTX-read 248 bit is set at execution time by every load instruction thatis marked “transactional” in the issue queue. Note that this can lead toover-marking if speculative loads are executed, for example on amispredicted branch path. The alternative of setting the TX-read 248 bitat load completion time was too expensive for silicon area, sincemultiple loads can complete at the same time, requiring many read-portson the load-queue.

Stores execute the same way as in non-transactional mode, but atransaction mark is placed in the store queue (STQ) 260 entry of thestore instruction. At write-back time, when the data from the STQ 260 iswritten into the L1 240, the TX-dirty bit 252 in the L1-directory 256 isset for the written cache line. Store write-back into the L1 240 occursonly after the store instruction has completed, and at most one store iswritten back per cycle. Before completion and write-back, loads canaccess the data from the STQ 260 by means of store-forwarding; afterwrite-back, the CPU 114 (FIG. 1B) can access the speculatively updateddata in the L1 240. If the transaction ends successfully, the TX-dirtybits 252 of all cache-lines are cleared, and also the TX-marks of notyet written stores are cleared in the STQ 260, effectively turning thepending stores into normal stores.

On a transaction abort, all pending transactional stores are invalidatedfrom the STQ 260, even those already completed. All cache lines thatwere modified by the transaction in the L1 240, that is, have theTX-dirty bit 252 on, have their valid bits turned off, effectivelyremoving them from the L1 240 cache instantaneously.

The architecture requires that before completing a new instruction, theisolation of the transaction read- and write-set is maintained. Thisisolation is ensured by stalling instruction completion at appropriatetimes when XIs are pending; speculative out-of order execution isallowed, optimistically assuming that the pending XIs are to differentaddresses and not actually cause a transaction conflict. This designfits very naturally with the XI-vs-completion interlocks that areimplemented on prior systems to ensure the strong memory ordering thatthe architecture requires.

When the L1 240 receives an XI, L1 240 accesses the directory to checkvalidity of the XI'ed address in the L1 240, and if the TX-read bit 248is active on the XI'ed line and the XI is not rejected, the LSU 280triggers an abort. When a cache line with active TX-read bit 248 isLRU'ed from the L1 240, a special LRU-extension vector remembers foreach of the 64 rows of the L1 240 that a TX-read line existed on thatrow. Since no precise address tracking exists for the LRU extensions,any non-rejected XI that hits a valid extension row the LSU 280 triggersan abort. Providing the LRU-extension effectively increases the readfootprint capability from the L1-size to the L2-size and associativity,provided no conflicts with other CPUs 114 against the non-preciseLRU-extension tracking causes aborts.

The store footprint is limited by the store cache size (the store cacheis discussed in more detail below) and thus implicitly by the L2 268size and associativity. No LRU-extension action needs to be performedwhen a TX-dirty 252 cache line is LRU'ed from the L1 240.

Store Cache

In prior systems, since the L1 240 and L2 268 are store-through caches,every store instruction causes an L3 272 store access; with now 6 coresper L3 272 and further improved performance of each core, the store ratefor the L3 272 (and to a lesser extent for the L2 268) becomesproblematic for certain workloads. In order to avoid store queuingdelays, a gathering store cache 264 had to be added, that combinesstores to neighboring addresses before sending them to the L3 272.

For transactional memory performance, it is acceptable to invalidateevery TX-dirty 252 cache line from the L1 240 on transaction aborts,because the L2 268 cache is very close (7 cycles L1 240 miss penalty) tobring back the clean lines. However, it would be unacceptable forperformance (and silicon area for tracking) to have transactional storeswrite the L2 268 before the transaction ends and then invalidate alldirty L2 268 cache lines on abort (or even worse on the shared L3 272).

The two problems of store bandwidth and transactional memory storehandling can both be addressed with the gathering store cache 264. Thecache 232 is a circular queue of 64 entries, each entry holding 128bytes of data with byte-precise valid bits. In non-transactionaloperation, when a store is received from the LSU 280, the store cachechecks whether an entry exists for the same address, and if so gathersthe new store into the existing entry. If no entry exists, a new entryis written into the queue, and if the number of free entries falls undera threshold, the oldest entries are written back to the L2 268 and L3272 caches.

When a new outermost transaction begins, all existing entries in thestore cache are marked closed so that no new stores can be gathered intothem, and eviction of those entries to L2 268 and L3 272 is started.From that point on, the transactional stores coming out of the LSU 280STQ 260 allocate new entries, or gather into existing transactionalentries. The write-back of those stores into L2 268 and L3 272 isblocked, until the transaction ends successfully; at that pointsubsequent (post-transaction) stores can continue to gather intoexisting entries, until the next transaction closes those entries again.

The store cache 264 is queried on every exclusive or demote XI, andcauses an XI reject if the XI compares to any active entry. If the coreis not completing further instructions while continuously rejecting XIs,the transaction is aborted at a certain threshold to avoid hangs.

The LSU 280 requests a transaction abort when the store cache 264overflows. The LSU 280 detects this condition when it tries to send anew store that cannot merge into an existing entry, and the entire storecache 264 is filled with stores from the current transaction. The storecache 264 is managed as a subset of the L2 268: while transactionallydirty lines can be evicted from the L1 240, they have to stay residentin the L2 268 throughout the transaction. The maximum store footprint isthus limited to the store cache size of 64×128 bytes, and it is alsolimited by the associativity of the L2 268. Since the L2 268 is 8-wayassociative and has 512 rows, it is typically large enough to not causetransaction aborts.

If a transaction aborts, the store cache 264 is notified and all entriesholding transactional data are invalidated. The store cache 264 also hasa mark per doubleword (8 bytes) whether the entry was written by a NTSTGinstruction—those doublewords stay valid across transaction aborts.

Millicode-Implemented Functions

Traditionally, IBM mainframe server processors contain a layer offirmware called millicode which performs complex functions like certainCISC instruction executions, interruption handling, systemsynchronization, and RAS. Millicode includes machine dependentinstructions as well as instructions of the instruction set architecture(ISA) that are fetched and executed from memory similarly toinstructions of application programs and the operating system (OS).Firmware resides in a restricted area of main memory that customerprograms cannot access. When hardware detects a situation that needs toinvoke millicode, the instruction fetching unit 204 switches into“millicode mode” and starts fetching at the appropriate location in themillicode memory area. Millicode may be fetched and executed in the sameway as instructions of the instruction set architecture (ISA), and mayinclude ISA instructions.

For transactional memory, millicode is involved in various complexsituations. Every transaction abort invokes a dedicated millicodesub-routine to perform the necessary abort steps. The transaction-abortmillicode starts by reading special-purpose registers (SPRs) holding thehardware internal abort reason, potential exception reasons, and theaborted instruction address, which millicode then uses to store a TDB ifone is specified. The TBEGIN instruction text is loaded from an SPR toobtain the GR-save-mask, which is needed for millicode to know which GRs228 to restore.

The CPU 114 supports a special millicode-only instruction to read outthe backup-GRs 224 and copy them into the main GRs 228. The TBEGINinstruction address is also loaded from an SPR to set the newinstruction address in the PSW to continue execution after the TBEGINonce the millicode abort sub-routine finishes. That PSW may later besaved as program-old PSW in case the abort is caused by a non-filteredprogram interruption.

The TABORT instruction may be millicode implemented; when the IDU 208decodes TABORT, it instructs the instruction fetch unit to branch intoTABORT's millicode, from which millicode branches into the common abortsub-routine.

The Extract Transaction Nesting Depth (ETND) instruction may also bemillicoded, since it is not performance critical; millicode loads thecurrent nesting depth out of a special hardware register and places itinto a GR 228. The PPA instruction is millicoded; it performs theoptimal delay based on the current abort count provided by software asan operand to PPA, and also based on other hardware internal state.

For constrained transactions, millicode may keep track of the number ofaborts. The counter is reset to 0 on successful TEND completion, or ifan interruption into the OS occurs (since it is not known if or when theOS will return to the program). Depending on the current abort count,millicode can invoke certain mechanisms to improve the chance of successfor the subsequent transaction retry. The mechanisms involve, forexample, successively increasing random delays between retries, andreducing the amount of speculative execution to avoid encounteringaborts caused by speculative accesses to data that the transaction isnot actually using. As a last resort, millicode can broadcast to otherCPUs 114 to stop all conflicting work, retry the local transaction,before releasing the other CPUs 114 to continue normal processing.Multiple CPUs 114 must be coordinated to not cause deadlocks, so someserialization between millicode instances on different CPUs 114 isrequired.

In various embodiments, the present invention introduces into thehardware TM environment a suite of machine instructions forcommunicating between processors as to the transactional memory statusof the various processors. Broadly, a TPROBE instruction provides amechanism by which any processor in the system can check thetransactional status of a given memory location. Complementarily, aTSPROBE instruction provides a mechanism by which a processor maydetermine if any other processors have, within a given predeterminedperiod before present, issued a TPROBE. At a coarser level ofgranularity, a TQUERY instruction provides a mechanism by which aprocessor may determine whether there are any transactions going on inthe system or in a given subset of processors within the system.Additionally, XI Probe is disclosed as a cross-interrogate (XI) thatmay, in some embodiments, implement TPROBE and TSPROBE.

FIG. 3A displays a data flow diagram that describes, in general, thetransmission of a probe request and response for a TPROBE instruction,in accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention. In thecomputer system 300, the first processor 302 may act, for exampleresponsive to an instruction to perform a TPROBE, which may beunderstood, for the embodiment depicted in FIG. 3A, as the TPROBEprogram 301 (in the Claims, “t_probe program”). The first processor 302sends a probe request 305, by any available path or mechanism to one ormore additional processors 310. The additional processors 310 include anAP₁ 310A, AP₂ 310B, etc. up to AP_(N) 310C, and may describe all of theprocessors in the computer system 300 or only a subset thereof.

Referring still to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 3A, the probe request305 may optionally include an argument 306, by which the probe request305 includes a memory location 304 within the memory 303. The argument306 may be omitted in various implementations that do not require one ormore specific memory locations 304 to be identified. The memory 303, inthe depicted embodiment, may be understood as shared cache, main memory,shared memory, general memory, or, more broadly any memory region,device, or article that may be accessed by the first processor 302 andthe additional processors 310 such that the potential for a conflictexists. In one contemplated embodiment, the memory location 304 (i.e.the contents of one more addresses in main memory) is stored in one ormore cache lines of shared cache, subject to the hardware TM's coherenceprotocol such that any processor of the computer system 300 may operateon the memory location 304 with full coherence support, in accordancewith the modified MESI protocol or another coherence protocol, and withthe assurance that no load or store operation on any processor mayaccess the location that corresponds to the cache line in main memory oranother resource. As described above, various contemplatedimplementations of hardware TM treat memory access conflicts as atransaction abort conditions, and thus preventing memory accessconflicts may directly lead to reduced aborts and improved performanceof the computer system 300. In particularly contemplated embodiments,the memory location 304 is stored in one or more cache lines.

Referring still to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 3A, the additionalprocessors 310 respond to the TPROBE by sending an indication 307 backto the first processor 302. Transmission of the indication 307 may beaccomplished by any available path or mechanism. The content of theindication may be whether the receiving processor is using thereferenced memory location 304.

FIG. 3B presents a data flow diagram for a TSPROBE program 318 withinthe context of the computer system 300, in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present invention. In the depicted embodiment, thefirst processor 302 listens for probe requests 305, such as TPROBEs ofthe present invention, on the additional processors 310, which includeAP₁ 310A, AP₂ 310B, up to AP_(N) 310C. The first processor may respond,as would an additional processor in TPROBE, with the indication 307.

In the depicted embodiment, the first processor may initialize and storea time record 320 at various times. The time record may represent areal-world time value, and may be a system timestamp relative to a fixedtime such as the UNIX epoch or relative to a variable time referencesuch as system start time or other event. The time record may be ofnanosecond precision or other timescale suitable for measuring cycles orinstructions of the one or more processors of the computer system 300.Alternatively, the time reference may include a count of cycles orinstructions of the computer system 300 or its processors, withoutreference to real world time. The first processor 302 may initialize orreset the time record 320 at various times, as described in furtherdetail below, for example when initiating a new transaction with aTBEGIN instruction or when executing a TSPROBE instruction again, thusreferring to the time since last executing a TSPROBE.

Referring still to the embodiment of the TSPROBE program 318 depicted inFIG. 3A, the first processor 302 may maintain a probe log 322. The probelog 322 may be implemented in main memory, cache, registers, or adedicated private storage circuit. The first processor 302 may record,in the probe log, each instance of TPROBE or other probe request 305that it receives. At a minimum, the TSPROBE program may maintain, in theprobe log 322, a count of probe requests 305 that are received. In otherembodiments, the probe log 322 may include records of the memorylocation(s) referenced in each probe request 305, when each proberequest 305 occurred, and/or which additional processor 310 each proberequest 305 originated from.

Thus, the TSPROBE program 318 may generate, based on the probe log 322,a probe report indication 324, which may be returned as the result ofexecuting the TSPROBE instruction. The probe report indication 324includes, in more generic embodiments, whether any TPROBEs have beenreceived from other processors. In alternative embodiments, the probereport indication 324 includes, also based on the probe log 322, whetherany TPROBEs have been received that were directed to any memory locationof a current transaction read-set or write-set. In additionalalternative embodiments, the probe report indication 324 includes, alsobased on the probe log 322, whether any TPROBES have been received thatwere directed to an arbitrary memory location. Such an arbitrary memorylocation may be included as an argument to the TSPROBE instruction.

FIG. 4 displays a data flow diagram that describes an embodiment of theXI Probe program 401 operating in a computer system 400. In the depictedembodiment, the first processor 402, responsive to an execution request,for example of a micro-op or millicode instruction, for the XI Probeprogram 401, issues an XI 405, which may optionally include an argument406 that identifies a memory location 404 within the memory 403. Theargument 406 may be identified by receiving one or more memory locations(including, e.g., a reference, pointer, address, or other specificationof one or more memory locations) in the execution request to the XIProbe program 401. The additional processors 410 may each include alevel-four cache 411A-411C. It should be noted, however, that the L4caches 411A-411C, while shown in 1:1 correspondence with API 410A-AP_(N)410C need not be private caches as to each processor, but may, invarious embodiments, be shared between two or more processors. Blocks411A-411C of FIG. 4 may therefore be best understood as denoting, forthe depicted embodiment, only that each processor has access to an L4cache, and the number of L4 caches may be smaller than the number ofprocessors. In accordance with other XIs described above, the XI Probeprogram 401 may broadcast to the additional processors 410, specificallyAP₁ 410A, AP₂ 410B, etc. up to AP_(N) 410C by copying a directive intoeach level four cache L4₁ 411A, L4₂ 411B, etc. up to L4_(N) 411C whichcorrespond to each Additional Processor 410. Each Additional Processor410 may generate an indication 407 and return it to the first processor402, for example via the first processor's 402 L4 cache.

FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 6 display various possible data flows for a TQUERYprogram 501 or a category TQUERY program 601, in accordance withembodiments of the invention. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 5A, thecomputer system 500 includes the first processor P₁ 502 issuing atransaction query 508 to a processor set. In embodiments of TQUERY, thetransactional memory environment supports one or more transactions bythe first processor 602 and by the processor set. For the depictedembodiment, the processor set includes processors P₂ 504A, P₃ 504B, P₄504C, P₅ 504D, etc. up to P_(N) 504E, or all processors in the computersystem 500. In the embodiment shown, P₁ 502 shares a logical partition(LPAR) LPAR₁ 506A with P₂ 504A and P₃ 504B. Similarly, LPAR₂ 506Bincludes P₄ 504C and P₅ 504D, and any number of LPARs may exist up toLPAR_(N) 506C, which includes P_(N) 504E. In embodiments where LPARs arenot implemented or not restrictive as to interprocessor communication,the processor set includes all processors of the computer system 500, asdepicted in FIG. 5A. Each processor in the processor set returns anindication 507 to P₁ 502. For TQUERY, the content of the indication mayinclude whether the particular responding processor is engaged in atransaction.

In some embodiments, LPARs may be implemented with strong separation oninterprocessor communication such that the various processors may onlycommunicate with and access shared resources for their own LPAR.Similarly, LPARs may be created by software convention in systems thatdo not otherwise implement them. As to such implementations, FIG. 5Bdiscloses a case where the transaction query 508 is sent from P1 502 tothe processor set, but where the processor set is limited to LPAR₁ 506A,which includes in 502 along with P₂ 504A and P₃ 504B. Thus, theprocessor set may include all processors sharing a logical partition506A with the first processor 502. Similarly, the processor set mayinclude more than one LPAR, but fewer than all of the LPARs. P₄ 504C, P₅504D, up to P_(N) 504E belong to different LPARs, and thus do notreceive the transaction query 508.

FIG. 6 depicts an embodiment of the category TQUERY program 601 on acomputer system 600 that supports a transaction category scheme, suchthat each of the one or more transactions has associated therewith acategory identifier. In the depicted embodiment of FIG. 6, P1 602similarly sends a transaction query 608 to the other processors in theprocessor set. In the depicted embodiment, all processors P₂ 604A, P₃604B, P₄ 604C, P₅ 604D, up to P_(N) 604E, which may be in any of LPAR₁606A, LPAR₂ 606B, up to LPAR_(N) 606C, all similarly send the indication607 back to P₁ 602. As with the embodiment depicted in FIG. 5B, animplementation having a transaction category scheme may likewise limitthe set of processors to only one or more LPARs.

Referring still to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, a transactioncategory scheme generally includes allowing an argument to a TBEGINinstruction whereby a label, for example a numeric value, may beassigned to the transaction that is started. The labels may be may beaccessed and assigned at the software layer. The transaction categoryscheme may be maintained by at least one mechanism selected from thegroup consisting of (a) a software convention; (b) an operating systemapplication programming interface; and (c) a hypervisor applicationprogramming interface. In an exemplary usage, each category identifiermay be associated with a data structure 614. The data structure 614 maygenerally be any software data structure that is created at the softwarelevel and exists in memory; more specifically, the data structure 614may include at least one data structure selected from the groupconsisting of: (a) a lock; (b) a semaphore; (c) a queue; a stack; (e) alinked list; and (f) a hash table. Software may be configured to assignto any transactions 610 that operate on the data structure's 614underlying memory locations a given category, Category X 612. In someembodiments, the TQUERY program may accept a wildcard, variable, orexpression as an argument such that more than one category may bematched by the same TQUERY.

Referring still to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, the transactionquery 608 includes a query category identifier 609, which may bespecified as an argument to the TQUERY program. In the depictedembodiment, the content of the indication 607 is whether the particularprocessor P₂ 604A-P_(N) 604E is engaged in a transaction of Category X612. Thus, via TQUERY, it is possible to expose to the software layerwhether the memory underlying the data structure 614 is in use, fromwhich a developer may infer that the data structure 614 itself is inuse, and thus accessing it should be delayed.

In some embodiments, the transactional memory environment may have, as afeature the behavior described above that transactions are aborted inresponse to detected attempts to access a shared resource via an XI.Distinctly, in various embodiments of TPROBE, TSPROBE, and TQUERY, aswell as embodiments of XI Probe, the additional processors 310 do notdetect any access to the memory location 304. Specifically, theadditional processors 310 do not interpret the probe request 305 or thetransaction query 508/608 as an abort condition.

FIGS. 7-13 display flowchart diagrams for the steps of the variousdisclosed methods of the present invention. It should be noted that, ingeneral, all depicted methods may operation in a transactional memoryenvironment including a first processor 302 and one or more additionalprocessors 310. In addition, the TPROBE, TSPROBE, and TQUERY programsmay each be executed as a machine instruction to the first processor302. Where XI Probe implements one of the machine instructions, XI Probemay be executable as a micro-op.

Referring now to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram depicting theoperational steps of a TPROBE program, in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the invention. At step 700, the TPROBE program identifiesa memory location. The memory location 304 may be identified in theexecution request to TPROBE and may be generally understood as a memorylocation that is of interest at the software layer. At step 710, theTPROBE program sends the probe request 305 from the first processor 302to the one or more additional processors 310, including, at step 712,the memory location 304 via the argument 306.

The TPROBE program may, but need not, be implemented by an embodiment ofthe XI Probe program. Thus, the probe request 305 may include across-interrogate. In such embodiments, the TPROBE program may executestep 714, sending an XI Probe, by calling the XI Probe program, eitheras a micro-op, millicode, invoking dedicated hardware, or otherwise.

Referring still to the flowchart for an embodiment of the TPROBE programof FIG. 7, at step 720, the TPROBE program generates the indication 307by each of the one or more additional processors 310. The indication 307includes whether the memory location 304 is in use for a transaction onthe particular responding additional processor 310. At step 722, eachadditional processor 310 determines whether the memory location 304 isin use for a transaction by that processor 310.

At step 724, the additional processors 310 do not detect any access tothe memory location 304. Equivalently, the additional processors 310 donot interpret the probe request 305 as an abort condition.

The current transaction may have associated therewith a read-set and awrite-set. The indication may include whether the memory location 304 isin use for the current transaction read-set, write-set, or both, with atleast one of the read-set or the write-set each including one or morememory locations. Each of the one or more memory locations may includeone or more cache lines. In some embodiments, the indication 307 mayinclude at least one communication mechanism selected from the groupconsisting of a status code, a condition code, and a flag setting. Wherethe indication 307 includes a status code, the status code may berepresented by two bits, and which each additional processor 310 may setat step 726. FIG. 16A displays a table of exemplary two-bit status codesfor use in a TPROBE program. The two bits may be in any one stateselected from the group consisting of state 00, state 01, state 10, andstate 11. As shown in the table of FIG. 16A, state 00 may denote thatthe memory location 304 is not in use for the transaction. State 01 maydenote that the memory location 304 is in use for the read-set. State 10may denote that the memory location 304 is in use for the write-set.State 11 may denote that the memory location 304 is in use for both theread-set and the write-set.

At step 730, the TPROBE program sends the indication 307 from the one ormore additional processors 310 to the first processor 302. At step 740,the first processor 302 proceeds based on the indication 307. Inparticular, the first processor may combine the status codes and makethem available to the software layer, or the first process may beinstructed to branch based on the indication 307. FIG. 14A displays asegment of assembly language-like pseudocode, which shows how a TPROBEprogram may be executed as a machine instruction.

In the pseudocode program of FIG. 14A, the TPROBE instruction isexecuted as to two memory locations A, and B. After each TPROBEstatement, a BRNZ (Break if Not Zero) instruction is executed as to theresult of TPROBE, with a reference back to a label PROBE_AGAIN. In theabove-described status code scheme, the state 00 denotes that the memorylocation is not in use, and any nonzero status indicates that the memorylocation is in use. The TPROBEs are followed by a simple transactionthat swaps the contents of memory locations A and B by loading each intoregisters 1 and 2, respectively, and storing back in reverse order. Theeffect of the BRNZ instructions with respect to the TPROBEs is to checkwhether first memory location A, and then memory location B, are in useby other processors on the system, and to repeatedly check until thememory locations become available, and then to conduct the transaction.The example memory location swapping transaction is simple and short,however the TPROBE program may be understood as of relatively greaterutility the more complex and lengthy the planned transaction is, becausepreventing an abort condition is of greater value for more complex,longer transactions.

Referring now to FIG. 8, FIG. 8 is a flowchart diagram depicting theoperational steps of a TSPROBE program, in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the invention. At step 800, the first processor 302initializes the time record 320. At step 808, the first processor 302listens for one or more probe requests 305, such as TPROBES, thatoriginate from the one or more additional processors 310. The TSPROBEprogram 318 may be understood as implemented by an embodiment of the XIProbe cross-interrogate. Specifically, TSPROBE may be understood aslistening for TPROBEs, which are implemented in hardware as XI Probecross-interrogates.

At step 810, the first processor 302 responds to each probe request 305of the one or more probe requests 305, such as TPROBEs) that itreceives. At step 812, the first processor 302 sends the indication 307,as in TPROBE, or it otherwise replies appropriately to another proberequest 305. At step 814, the first processor 302 logs each TPROBE orother probe request 305 of the zero or more TRPOBEs or other proberequests 305, as they are received, to yield the probe log 322. In thedepicted embodiment of TSPROBE, the first processor 302 continueslistening for probe requests 305 until, at step 820, the first processor302 receives (e.g., from software) a probe report directive. The probereport directive may be the execution of the TSPROBE instruction,another instruction, or other indication from the software layer toreturn data based on the probe log 322. Responsive to the probe reportdirective, the first processor may generate the probe report indication324. At step 822, the probe report indication 324 includes whether,since the time record 320, the first processor 302 has received anyprobe request 305, such as a TPROBE, as indicated in the probe log 322.In various embodiments, the probe report indication 324 may include atleast one communication mechanism selected from the group consisting ofa status code, a condition code, and a flag setting. At step 824, thefirst processor 302 may end the time record 320; a new time record 320may be initialized immediately or at a later time such that subsequentexecutions of TSPROBE may refer to the newly initialized time record.The time record 320 may be understood as the moment in time at which therelevant interval for embodiments of the TSPROBE program begins. Endingthe time record at step 824 may be understood as actively closing therelevant interval for embodiments of the TSPROBE program. Ending thetime record 320 need not be equivalent to resetting or re-initializingthe time record 320.

With regard to embodiments of the TSPROBE program 318 generally, itshould be noted that the contemplated probe request 305 is a TPROBE fromanother processor, and in the claims a TPROBE and a generic proberequest 305 are referred to as “probes”. Specifically, each of the oneor more probes received by the first processor 302 in TSPROBE mayinclude the execution of a TPROBE (in the claims “t_probe”) by one ofthe one or more additional processors 310.

Referring now to FIG. 9, FIG. 9 is a flowchart diagram depicting theoperational steps of a TSPROBE program 318 as used in the context of atransaction on the first processor 302, in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the invention. At step 900, the first processor 302initializes the time record 320 by initiating a transaction with TBEGIN(step 902) and recording when the transaction is initiated by settingthe time record 320 to the time of TBEGIN for the transaction. At step906, the first processor proceeds with the transaction, assigning memorylocations to the read-set and write-set associated therewith. At leastone of the read-set or the write-set includes one or more memorylocations. At step 908 (analogous to step 808), the first processorlistens for TPROBEs or other probe requests 305 from the additionalprocessors 310.

At step 910 (similar to step 810), the first processor 302 actsresponsively to each TPROBE received. At step 912 (similar to step 812),the first processor 302 replies appropriately to each TPROBE or otherprobe request 305. At step 914 (similar to step 814), the firstprocessor 302 logs the probe requests 305 in the probe log 322 as theyare received. The first processor 302 continues listening for proberequests 305 until, at step 920 (similar to step 820), the firstprocessor 302 receives a probe report directive such as a TSPROBEinstruction.

Referring still to the flowchart for an embodiment of the TSPROBEprogram 318 of FIG. 9, at step 922, the probe report indication denoteswhether, since the time record 320, the first processor 302 has receivedany TPROBE or other probe request 305 that was directed to any memorylocation in the read-set, write-set, or both the read-set and thewrite-set for the transaction on the first processor 302. Where, asdepicted, TSPROBE is executed in the context of a transaction on thefirst processor 302, the period since the time record 320 may includethe period since initiating the transaction on the first processor 302.At step 924, the first processor 302 ends the time record 320, which mayinclude terminating the current transaction with a TEND instruction.

In some embodiments of TSPROBE, the probe report indication 324 mayinclude a status code. The status code may be represented by two bits.FIG. 16B displays a table of exemplary two-bit status codes for use in aTPROBE program. The two bits may be in any one state selected from thegroup consisting of state 00, state 01, state 10, and state 11. As shownin the table of FIG. 16B, state 00 may denote that none or the zero ormore TPROBEs or other probe requests 305 received by the first processor302 since the time record 320 were directed to any memory location inthe read-set or the write-set for the current transaction. State 01 maydenote that at least one of the zero or more TPROBEs or other proberequests 305 received by the first processor 302 since the time record320 was directed to at least one memory location of the read-set for thecurrent transaction. State 10 may denote that at least one of the zeroor more TPROBEs or other probe requests 305 received by the firstprocessor 302 since the time record 320 was directed to at least onememory location of the write-set for the current transaction. State 11may denote that at least one of the zero or more TPROBEs or other proberequests 305 received by the first processor 302 since the time record320 was directed to at least one memory location of the write-set forthe current transaction.

At step 924, the TSPROBE program returns the probe report indication324, which may be made available to the software layer. In particular,FIG. 14B presents a segment of C-like pseudocode that demonstrates howan embodiment TSPROBE may be executed from the software layer. It shouldbe noted that TSPROBE may be embodied as a machine instruction notnormally directly accessible to high-level code such as the C-likepseudocode of FIG. 14B, however, for purposes of the presentedpseudocode, the TSPROBE instructions as well as other instructions fromthe transactional instruction set architecture (TBEGIN, TEND, andTABORT) may be understood as wrapped in corresponding functions orotherwise made available at the software level.

The pseudocode of FIG. 14B may be understood as part of a thread to beexecuted on the first processor 302. At line 01, a transaction withTBEGIN. From line 02, the program iterates over a list, searching for adefined Element (line 04), the current element represented by thevariable p (initialized at line 01). The program keeps a variable, count(lines 02, 09), of the number of iterations, and each iteration, itapplies a test to p→data to determine whether p is equal to the Elementof interest (line 04). If p is the correct Element, then some processingoccurs, and the program ends the transaction with TEND and branches outof loop (lines 05-06).

Referring still to the pseudocode of FIG. 14B, if count grows to exceeda given value, in this case ten (line 10), then TSPROBE is executed. Theinference represented by line 10 is that, if the Element is not foundquickly, then the transaction is likely to take a long time, and theprogram should attempt to ascertain whether the list iterated over bythe variable p is wanted for another, perhaps faster, transaction. Ifother probes are detected (line 11), for example by a nonzero returnvalue from TSBROBE, then the transaction is ended with TABORT (line 12),and the program handles the abort condition as appropriate (line 13). Ifno probes are detected, then the transaction can proceed through thenext iteration. If the Element is neither found (p=NULL, line 03) norany probe detected, then the transaction exits normally with TEND (line17).

Referring now to FIG. 10, FIG. 10 displays a flowchart diagram for aTSPROBE program configured for execution outside of a transaction and asto a specific memory location 304, in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the invention. For the embodiment depicted in FIG. 10, theintended usage of TSPROBE is, broadly, to test whether any probe hasbeen issued as to one or more specified memory locations beforeaccessing them, whether in the context of a transaction or not. Thecorresponding inference is that, if a probe has been issued as to theone or more memory locations, then the one or more memory locations arelikely to soon or already be in use for a transaction on one of theadditional processors 310.

Referring still to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 10, at step 1000, thefirst processor initializes the time record 320. At step 1002, theTSPROBE program 318 identifies one or more memory locations. At step1008 (analogous to step 808), the first processor listens for TPROBEs orother probe requests 305 from the additional processors 310. At step1010 (similar to step 810), the first processor 302 acts responsively toeach TPROBE received. At step 1012 (similar to step 812), the firstprocessor 302 replies appropriately to each TPROBE or other proberequest 305. At step 1014 (similar to step 814), the first processor 302logs the probe requests 305 in the probe log 322 as they are received.The first processor 302 continues listening for probe requests 305until, at step 1020 (similar to step 820), the first processor 302receives a probe report directive such as a TSPROBE instruction.

At step 1022, the TSPROBE program generates the probe report indication324. The probe report indication 324 denotes whether, since the timerecord 320, the first processor has received any of the zero or moreTPROBEs or other probe requests 305 directed to the one or more memorylocations. At step 1024 (analogous to step 824), the first processor 302ends the time record 320.

Referring now to the XI Probe program, the XI Probe program mayimplement TPROBE and TSPROBE, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent invention. As an XI, XI Probe may be executed within a machineinstruction as a micro-op, millicode instruction, or othersub-instruction operation. General embodiments of XI Probe maycommunicate between processors via the L4 cache 411A-411C, and, ingeneral, additional processors 410, when receiving an XI Probe, mayrespond without aborting any current transaction or otherwise detectinga read on the current transaction read-set or write-set, regardless ofwhat memory locations are referenced by the XI Probe.

FIG. 15 displays a table of behaviors for an embodiment of XI Probe incomparison to two other XIs: read-only invalidate and exclusiveinvalidate. As shown, read-only invalidate and exclusive invalidate willcause a transactional abort whenever conflict exists, as per theabove-described behavior regarding transactional aborts in the event ofa conflict trigger action. Specifically, in contemplated environments,read-only invalidate will cause a transactional abort if it hits on aprocessor's write-set or both the read-set and the write-set, and anexclusive invalidate will cause a transactional abort if it hits on aprocessors read-set, write-set, or both. By contrast, the embodiment ofXI Probe depicted in FIG. 15 will return information on whether it hashit on the processor's read-set, write-set, or both, but in no case willit cause a transactional abort.

FIG. 11 displays a flowchart diagram for an embodiment of XI Probe thatimplements TPROBE. At step 1100, the XI Probe program receives one ormore memory locations 404, for example as an argument to a machine levelexecution of TPROBE. At step 1110, the XI Probe program broadcasts, bythe first processor 402 to the one or more additional processors 410, across-interrogate 405. At step 1112, the cross-interrogate 405references the one or more memory locations 404 via an argument 406. Atstep 1114, the broadcasting is achieved by copying a directive into tothe L4 cache 411A-411C of each additional processor 410.

Referring still to the embodiment of XI Probe depicted in FIG. 11, theXI Probe program receives, by the one or more additional processors 410,the cross-interrogate 405. At step 1120, the XI Probe program generates,by each of the additional processors 410, the indication 407. At step1122, and as per FIG. 15, the XI Probe program includes not aborting, bythe one or more additional processors 410, any current transaction basedon the cross-interrogate 405. At step 1124, each additional processor410 determines whether the memory location 404 is in use for a currenttransaction such that each indication 407 includes whether the memorylocation 404 is in use for the current transaction by that of the one ormore additional processors 410.

Each indication 407 may be represented by two bits. The two bits may bein any one state selected from the group consisting of state 00, state01, state 10, and state 11. FIG. 16C displays a table of exemplarytwo-bit codes that may represent the indication 407 for a singleadditional processor 410 in an embodiment of XI Probe. In the exemplarycode scheme of FIG. 16C, a current transaction on the particularadditional processor 410 has associated therewith a read-set andwrite-set, and at least one of the read-set and the write-set includesone or more memory locations. As shown in the table of FIG. 16C, state00 may denote that the memory location 404 is not in use by that of theone or more processors 410 for the current transaction. State 01 maydenote that the memory location 404 is in use by that of the one or moreadditional processors 410 for the read-set of the current transaction.State 10 may denote that the memory location 404 is in use by that ofthe one or more additional processors for the write-set of the currenttransaction. State 11 may denote that the memory location 404 is in useby that of the one or more additional processors for both the read-setand the write-set of the current transaction.

Referring still to the embodiment of XI Probe depicted in FIG. 11, theXI Probe program, at step 1130, sends the indication 407 from each ofthe one or more additional processors 410 to the first processor. Atstep 1140, the XI Probe program may combine, by the first processor 402,each indication 407 from the one or more additional processors 410 toyield a status code. The XI Probe program may return the status code tothe calling machine instruction or otherwise make the status codeavailable. In one embodiment, the status code may be determined byapplying a boolean-or operation to the two bits of the indication 407for each of the one or more additional processors 410. Thus, thecombined status code may capture any transaction in the computer system400 that uses the memory location 404.

The XI Probe program may also implement TSPROBE, as depicted in theflowchart diagram of FIG. 12. The depiction may be extended toembodiments of TSPROBE that identify one or more memory locations,including both arbitrary memory locations and memory locationsassociated with the read-set or write-set of a transaction, as well asembodiments that do not identify any memory location. In the embodimentof FIG. 12, each additional processor 410 initializes a time record atstep 1200. As discussed above, the time record may mark the start of acurrent transaction, the time of last executing TSPROBE, or an arbitrarytime. Each additional processor 410 receives a cross-interrogate at step1210 by receiving a directive via L4 cache at step 1212. Each additionalprocessor 410 identifies the memory location passed by the XI from thedirective in L4 cache at step 1214.

Referring still to the flowchart for an embodiment of XI Probe of FIG.12, at step 1220, each additional processor 410 responds to the XI. Atstep 1222, each of the one or more additional processors 410 generatethe indication 407, which includes whether the particular additionalprocessor 410 has the XI-identified memory location in use for atransaction. At step 1224, the additional processor 410 does not causean abort of any current transaction in response to the XI 405. At step1226, each additional processor 410 records the cross-interrogate 405 inits probe log. At step 1230, the indication 407 may be sent from eachadditional processor 410 to the first processor 402, completing eachadditional processor 410's response to the XI. At step 1240, eachadditional processor waits for and responds to a probe report directive(e.g. a TSPROBE instruction). Responding to the probe report directivemay include returning, by that of the one or more additional processors,a probe report indication. The probe report indication includes whether,since the time record, that of the one or more additional processors hasreceived at least one instance of the cross-interrogate.

Referring now to FIG. 13, FIG. 13 displays a flowchart diagram for aTQUERY program, in accordance with at least one embodiment of theinvention. The TQUERY program may operate in a hardware TM environmentincluding a plurality of processors. The transactional memoryenvironment may support one or more transactions by the first processor602 and the processor set. The plurality of processors may be understoodas including the first processor 602 and a processor set. The processorset includes one or more additional processors 604A-604E. As above, theprocessor set may include all processor in the computer system 600, allprocessors on the same LPAR (LPAR₁ 606A) as the first processor 602, ora differently defined subset.

In embodiments wherein the transactional memory environment supports atransaction category scheme, at step 1300, the TQUERY program mayidentify a query category identifier 609, which may be received from thesoftware layer as an argument to the TQUERY machine instruction. At step1310, the TQUERY program may send the transaction query 608 from thefirst processor 602 to the processor set. For embodiments withtransaction category support, the transaction query 608 may include thequery category identifier 609; this may be achieved by reference at step1312.

Referring still to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 13, the TQUERYprogram generates, by each additional processor 604A-604E in theprocessor set, the indication 607. The indication 607 includes whetherthe additional processor 604A-604E is executing a transaction. TheTQUERY program determines this at step 1322. For embodiments thatsupport a transaction category scheme, at step 1324, each additionalprocessor 604A-604E determines whether the category identifier of thecurrent transaction matches the query category identifier 609. Thus, theindication 607, may include whether the category identifier of thecurrent transaction matches the query category identifier 609.

Referring still to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 13, the TQUERYprogram, at step 1320, sends the indication 607 from each additionalprocessor 604A-604E in the processor set to the first processor 602. Theindications 607 may be combined at the first processor into a statuscode denoting whether any transaction anywhere on the computer system600 was detected by the TQUERY, which may be made available to thesoftware layer. More generally, at step 1330, the first processor 602may proceed based on the indication 607.

FIG. 14C displays a segment of assembly language-like pseudocode showingan exemplary usage of an embodiment of a TQUERY machine instruction. Inthe pseudocode of FIG. 14C, the depicted program calls TQUERY anargument of 7, denoting that the TQUERY is directed to transactions ofcategory 7. As above, the assignment of category 7 to transactions on aparticular data structure or other class of transactions may be managedin the software layer, or by dedicated circuits. Following the TQUERYexecution, the depicted program of FIG. 14C executes a BRNZ (break ifnot zero) directed to the result of TQUERY, denoting that if TQUERYdetected any transaction of category 7—and giving a nonzero returnvalue—then, the program is to break and go to the label QUERY_AGAIN.This creates a simple loop whereby the depicted program repeatedlyTQUERIES until there are no transactions of the identified category, atwhich point it initiates a transaction with category 7 by TBEGINC, whichmay be understood as a category-enabled version of TBEGIN. The depictedprogram then executes an exemplary transaction (in this case, swappingtwo memory locations C and D, though it should be noted that the TQUERYprogram is of relatively greater value the longer and more complicatedthe transaction) and concludes with TEND.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram depicting components of a computer 1700suitable for executing the disclosed methods. FIG. 17 displays thecomputer 1700, the one or more processor(s) 1704 (including one or morecomputer processors), the communications fabric 1702, the memory 1706,the RAM 1716, the cache 1718, the persistent storage 1708, thecommunications unit 1712, the I/O interfaces 1714, the display 1722, andthe external devices 1720. It should be appreciated that FIG. 17provides only an illustration of one embodiment and does not imply anylimitations with regard to the environments in which differentembodiments may be implemented. Many modifications to the depictedenvironment may be made.

Depicted within the processor 1704 is the transactional instruction setarchitecture (“ISA”) 1730. The transactional ISA 1730 may be understoodas including all of the machine instructions provided for the operationof the computer system 1700 with its transactional memory environment,including LOAD and STORE instructions, arithmetic instructions, TBEGIN,and TEND. Included within the Transactional ISA 1730 may be one or moreof the methods of the present invention to be executed as a machineinstruction, including a TPROBE machine instruction 1732, a TSPROBEmachine instruction 1734, and a TQUERY machine instruction 1736.

Also depicted within the processor 1704 are the cross-interrogates (XIs)1740, including XI Probe 1742, which, as defined above, may besub-instruction operations of the processor 1704, embodied, for example,as millicode procedures, micro-ops, or directly in circuitry, thatenable communications between cache levels or between processors. Insome embodiments, as above, interprocessor XIs communicate via one ormore L4 caches 1719 of the various processors 1704, or between differentL4 caches of the same processor 1704. In particular, the XI Probe XI1742 may be executed as a micro-op or otherwise. The XI Probe XI 1742may be further configured to implement various machine instructions,including the TPROBE machine instruction 1732, the TSPROBE machineinstruction 1734, and the TQUERY instruction 1736.

As depicted, the computer 1700 operates over a communications fabric1702, which provides communications between the computer processor(s)1704, memory 1706, persistent storage 1708, communications unit 1712,and input/output (I/O) interface(s) 1714. The communications fabric 1702may be implemented with any architecture suitable for passing data orcontrol information between the processors 1704 (e.g. microprocessors,communications processors, and network processors), the memory 1706, theexternal devices 1720, and any other hardware components within asystem. For example, the communications fabric 1702 may be implementedwith one or more buses.

The memory 1706 and persistent storage 1708 are computer readablestorage media. In the depicted embodiment, the memory 1706 comprises arandom access memory (RAM) 1716 and a cache 1718. In general, the memory1706 may comprise any suitable volatile or non-volatile one or morecomputer readable storage media.

Program instructions for the disclosed programs may be stored in thepersistent storage 1708, or more generally, any computer readablestorage media, for execution by one or more of the respective computerprocessors 1704 via one or more memories of the memory 1706. Thepersistent storage 1708 may be a magnetic hard disk drive, a solid statedisk drive, a semiconductor storage device, read-only memory (ROM),electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory, or any other computer readable storage media that is capable ofstoring program instructions or digital information.

The media used by the persistent storage 1708 may also be removable. Forexample, a removable hard drive may be used for persistent storage 1708.Other examples include optical and magnetic disks, thumb drives, andsmart cards that are inserted into a drive for transfer onto anothercomputer readable storage medium that is also part of the persistentstorage 1708.

The communications unit 1712, in these examples, provides forcommunications with other data processing systems or devices. In theseexamples, the communications unit 1712 may comprise one or more networkinterface cards. The communications unit 1712 may provide communicationsthrough the use of either or both physical and wireless communicationslinks. In the context of some embodiments of the present invention, thesource of the various input data may be physically remote to thecomputer 1700 such that the input data may be received and the outputsimilarly transmitted via the communications unit 1712.

The I/O interface(s) 1714 allow for input and output of data with otherdevices that may operate in conjunction with the computer 1700. Forexample, the I/O interface 1714 may provide a connection to the externaldevices 1720, which may be as a keyboard, keypad, a touch screen, orother suitable input devices. External devices 1720 may also includeportable computer readable storage media, for example thumb drives,portable optical or magnetic disks, and memory cards. Software and dataused to practice embodiments of the present invention may be stored onsuch portable computer readable storage media and may be loaded onto thepersistent storage 1708 via the I/O interface(s) 1714. The I/Ointerface(s) 1714 may similarly connect to a display 1722. The display1722 provides a mechanism to display data to a user and may be, forexample, a computer monitor.

A computer system suitable for executing the TPROBE program 301, TSPROBEprogram 318, XI Probe program 401, TQUERY program 501 or category TQUERYprogram 601, according to at least one embodiment of this inventioncomprises a processing circuit (comprising one or more processors,including one or more computer processors), one or more computerreadable storage media, and communications mechanisms between those andother parts of the computer. The possible forms of computer readablestorage media comprise persistent storage components (such as the harddisks), main memory components, cache components, registers and otherstorage media components in the processing circuit, online storagecomponents, and offline bulk storage components.

The computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computersystem that embody the present invention as described herein may beimplemented in machine hardware using logic circuits, processingcircuits, millicode, firmware, and other machine level computingelements. Those skilled in the art of designing computing machines andmachine elements will be able to generate machine components designs andmachine components that implement the program instructions disclosedherein.

In some embodiments, transactional memory environment in which theinvention is implemented is characterized by a behavior that atransactional abort is triggered by a conflict trigger action as to aconflict transaction. The conflict transaction may be any transaction onany of the several processors of the system, and may include a conflictread-set and a conflict write-set. Various conflict trigger actions maybe configured to cause an abort, including at least where the conflicttrigger action is selected from the group consisting of: (a) when one ormore processors load from the conflict write-set of the conflicttransaction; or store to the conflict read-set or conflict write-set ofthe conflict trigger transaction.

Various embodiments of the invention may be implemented in a dataprocessing system suitable for storing and/or executing program codethat includes at least one processor (including at least one computerprocessor) coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through asystem bus. The memory elements include, for instance, local memoryemployed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, andcache memory which provide temporary storage of at least some programcode in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved frombulk storage during execution.

Input/Output or I/O devices (including, but not limited to, keyboards,displays, pointing devices, DASD, tape, CDs, DVDs, thumb drives andother memory media, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directlyor through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also becoupled to the system to enable the data processing system to becomecoupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storagedevices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cablemodems, and Ethernet cards are just a few of the available types ofnetwork adapters.

One or more aspects of the present invention can be included in anarticle of manufacture (e.g., a computer program product or combinationof two or more computer program products) having, for instance, computerusable media or computer readable storage media. The media has therein,for instance, computer readable program code means or logic (e.g.,instructions, code, commands, etc.) to provide and facilitate thecapabilities of the present invention. The computer readable storagemedia store instructions, including program instructions or computerprogram instructions. The article of manufacture can be included as apart of a system (e.g., computer system) or sold separately.

One example of an article of manufacture or a computer program productincorporating one or more aspects of the present invention includes, forinstance, one or more computer usable media to store computer readableprogram code means or logic thereon to provide and facilitate one ormore aspects of the present invention. The computer readable storagemedium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Examples of optical disksinclude compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write(CD-R/W) and DVD.

A sequence of program instructions or a logical assembly of one or moreinterrelated modules defined by one or more computer readable programcode means or logic direct the performance of one or more aspects of thepresent invention.

Although one or more examples have been provided herein, these are onlyexamples. Many variations are possible without departing from the spiritof the present invention. For instance, processing environments otherthan the examples provided herein may include and/or benefit from one ormore aspects of the present invention. Further, the environment need notbe based on the z/Architecture®, but instead can be based on otherarchitectures offered by, for instance, IBM®, Intel®, Sun Microsystems,as well as others. Yet further, the environment can include multipleprocessors, be partitioned, and/or be coupled to other systems, asexamples.

As used herein, the term “obtaining” includes, but is not limited to,fetching, receiving, having, providing, being provided, creating,developing, etc.

The capabilities of one or more aspects of the present invention can beimplemented in software, firmware, hardware, or some combinationthereof. At least one program storage device readable by a machineembodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machineto perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided.

The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be manyvariations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) describedtherein without departing from the spirit of the invention. Forinstance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps maybe added, deleted, or modified. All of these variations are considered apart of the claimed invention.

Although preferred embodiments have been depicted and described indetail herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant artthat various modifications, additions, substitutions and the like can bemade without departing from the spirit of the invention, and these are,therefore, considered to be within the scope of the invention, asdefined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer program product, the computer programproduct comprising one or more non-transitory computer readable storagemedia and program instructions stored on said one or more non-transitorycomputer readable storage media, said program instructions comprisinginstructions to, in a transactional memory environment including aplurality of processors comprising a first processor and one or moreadditional processors: initialize, by said first processor, a timerecord; listen, by said first processor, for one or more probes fromsaid one more additional processors; respond, by said first processor,to each probe of said one or more probes; log, by said first processor,each probe of said one or more probes, to yield a probe log, whereinsaid probe log comprises a count of said one or more probe requests;receive, by said first processor, a probe report directive; responsiveto said probe report directive, generate a probe report indication basedon said probe log, said probe report indication denoting whether, sincesaid time record, said first processor has received any of said one ormore probes; and end said time record; wherein: each of said one or moreprobes comprises the execution of a tprobe program by one of said one ormore additional processors; said tprobe program comprises a crossinterrogate from any of said one or more additional processors to saidfirst processor; and said first processor does not detect any memoryaccess and does not interpret said cross interrogate as a transactionabort condition.
 2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein:said instructions to initialize, by said first processor, a time recordcomprise instructions to initiate a transaction and record when saidtransaction is initiated; said transaction has associated therewith aread-set and a write-set; at least one of said read-set or saidwrite-set comprises one or more memory locations; said probe reportindication denotes whether, since said time record, said first processorhas received any of said one or more probes directed to any memorylocation of said read-set, said write-set, or both said read-set andsaid write-set; and said instructions to end said time record compriseinstructions to terminate said transaction.
 3. The computer programproduct of claim 1, wherein: said program instructions further compriseinstructions to identify one or more memory locations; and said probereport indication denotes whether, since said time record, said firstprocessor has received any of said one or more probes as to said one ormore memory locations.
 4. The computer program product of claim 3,wherein each of said one or more memory locations is stored in one ormore cache lines.
 5. The computer-program product of claim 3, wherein:said probe report indication comprises a status code; said status codeis represented by two bits; and said two bits are in any one stateselected from the group consisting of: (a) state 00, denoting that noneof said one or more probes received since said time record were directedto any memory location in said read-set or said write-set; (b) state 01,denoting that at least one of said one or more probes received sincesaid time record was directed to at least one memory location of saidread-set; (c) state 10, denoting that at least one of said one or moreprobes received since said time record was directed to at least onememory location of said write-set; and (d) state 11, denoting both: thatat least one of said one or more probes received since said time recordwas directed to at least one memory location of said read-set; and thatat least one of said one or more probes issued since said time recordwas directed to at least one memory location of said write-set.
 6. Thecomputer program product of claim 1, wherein said transactional memoryenvironment is characterized by a behavior that a transactional abort istriggered by a conflict trigger action as to a conflict transactionincluding a conflict read-set and a conflict write-set, said conflicttrigger action being one of said plurality of processors storing toeither said conflict read set or said conflict write set.
 7. Thecomputer program product of claim 1, wherein said probe reportindication comprises at least one communication mechanism selected fromthe group consisting of: (a) a condition code; and (b) a flag setting.8. The computer program product of claim 1, said program instructionsbeing executed as a machine instruction to said first processor.
 9. Thecomputer program product of claim 1, wherein ending said time record isperformed responsive to receiving said probe report directive.
 10. Thecomputer program product of claim 1, wherein said time record denotes amoment in time.
 11. A computer system, the computer system comprising:one or more processing circuits; and one or more computer readablestorage media; wherein said computer readable storage media storeinstructions for execution by said one or more processing circuits; saidinstructions for execution by said one or more processing circuitscomprising instructions to, in a transactional memory environmentincluding a plurality of processors comprising a first processor and oneor more additional processors: initialize, by said first processor, atime record; listen, by said first processor, for one or more probesfrom said one more additional processors; respond, by said firstprocessor, to each probe of said one or more probes; log, by said firstprocessor, each probe of said one or more probes, to yield a probe log,wherein said probe log comprises a count of said one or more proberequests; receive, by said first processor, a probe report directive;responsive to said probe report directive, generate a probe reportindication based on said probe log, said probe report indicationdenoting whether, since said time record, said first processor hasreceived any of said one or more probes; and end said time record;wherein: each of said one or more probes comprises the execution of atprobe program by one of said one or more additional processors; saidtprobe program comprises a cross interrogate from any of said one ormore additional processors to said first processor; and said firstprocessor does not detect any memory access and does not interpret saidcross interrogate as a transaction abort condition.
 12. The computersystem of claim 11, wherein: said instructions to initialize, by saidfirst processor, a time record comprise instructions to initiate atransaction and record when said transaction is initiated; saidtransaction has associated therewith a read-set and a write-set; atleast one of said read-set or said write-set comprises one or morememory locations; said probe report indication denotes whether, sincesaid time record, said first processor has received any of said one ormore probes directed to any memory location of said read-set, saidwrite-set, or both said read-set and said write-set; and saidinstructions to end said time record comprise instructions to terminatesaid transaction.
 13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein: saidinstructions for execution by said one or more processing circuitscomprise instructions to identify one or more memory locations; and saidprobe report indication denotes whether, since said time record, saidfirst processor has received any of said one or more probes as to saidone or more memory locations.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein: saidprobe report indication comprises a status code; said status code isrepresented by two bits; and said two bits are in any one state selectedfrom the group consisting of: (a) state 00, denoting that none of saidone or more probes received since said time record were directed to anymemory location in said read-set or said write-set; (b) state 01,denoting that at least one of said one or more probes received sincesaid time record was directed to at least one memory location of saidread-set; (c) state 10, denoting that at least one of said one or moreprobes received since said time record was directed to at least onememory location of said write-set; and (d) state 11, denoting both: thatat least one of said one or more probes received since said time recordwas directed to at least one memory location of said read-set; and thatat least one of said one or more probes issued since said time recordwas directed to at least one memory location of said write-set.
 15. Thecomputer system of claim 11, wherein said transactional memoryenvironment is characterized by a behavior that a transactional abort istriggered by a conflict trigger action as to a conflict transactionincluding a conflict read-set and a conflict write-set, said conflicttrigger action being one of said plurality of processors storing toeither said conflict read set or said conflict write set.
 16. Thecomputer system of claim 11, wherein said probe report indicationcomprises at least one communication mechanism selected from the groupconsisting of: (a) a condition code; and (b) a flag setting.
 17. Thecomputer system of claim 11, wherein ending said time record isperformed responsive to receiving said probe report directive.
 18. Thecomputer system of claim 11, wherein said time record denotes a momentin time.